Patents and Networks: Case of Discerning the Evolutionary Nature of Technological Change in the Complex Product Industry

Together with a network-based bibliometric method and an empirical investigation of the technology evolution of modern electric vehicles (EVs), this chapter proposes a dynamic method to ascertain and calibrate technological trajectories and describes the dynamic nature of technology changes in detail. The long-term historical technological development of EVs is presented with the identification of the evolution of specific technological directions, technical bottlenecks, and problem-solving heuristics. Two waves of EV technology development and the dynamic evolutionary trajectories in the second wave are discerned and brought forth through the grace of the proposed dynamic methods with the extent of cumulativeness and persistence at the knowledge level.