A collective reasoning on the automotive industry: A patent co-citation analysis

While collective cognition has received increasing attention in the broader field of organization, academic research has largely overlooked its potential role on shaping innovation trajectories and technological change adaptation at a firm and industrial levels. Through a strategic lens and based on the patent bibliometrics and patent co-citation methods, we integrate and extend the cognition and technology strategy literatures by proposing an invention behavior map of leading companies and groups in the automotive industry. How collective cognition influence patent strategies? How economic trends impact on patent paths? Empirical evidence for these reasons is drawn from a longitudinal patent analysis quantitative approach of the period 1991-2013 considered overall and consequently subdivided into three sub periods of seven years each 1991-1997, 1998-2004, 2005-2013. About 443.000 patents, 1.108.356 citations and 1.234.623 co-citations of 49 automotive assignees were collected from Derwent Innovation Index (DII), the largest world patent and innovation database. Multi dimensional scaling and cluster analysis techniques are employed to detect embryonic cognition homogeneity measures and provide an overview of groups technology composition and companies innovation strategies trends. Finally, explorative findings are discussed below with suggestions about how they might be translated into managerial implications.