Emergence of a global innovation system: an inter-temporal analysis through a network of networks

This paper investigates a structural change: the emergence of a Global Innovation System (GIS). Focusing on international knowledge flows (IKFs), we organize a network in three layers according to the type of IKF that connects the institutions: scientific collaboration, patent citation or article citation in patents. We investigate how those three layers overlap and entangle, forming a network of networks. We found that each layer follows a free-scale network structure associated with a self-organized system and creates an intrinsic hierarchy. The subnetwork that connects the three layers is also a free-scale network. The intertemporal analysis shows that those properties persist from 2009 to 2017. Therefore, we identified a complex network structure. This structure shows hierarchy, association with self-organized systems, robustness and specialization, which are the fundamental aspects necessary to define a system. In the context of this analysis, this is the Global Innovation System.