Heterogeneities and patterns of innovations in life sciences sector: The case of stem cells employing patent families data

While study on innovations in life sciences is not new, technology breakthrough in this field always attracts scholars to exploring new innovation insights, due to its expected significance to economic development and social welfare. This paper explores the heterogeneities and patterns of innovations in life sciences sector with the case of stem cells, an emerging and promising field. By employing 10,853 stem cell-related patent families published up until 2011 retrieved from Thomson Reuters/Derwent Innovations Index database, this paper clarifies the heterogeneities of innovation activities in stem cells sector in terms of regions, actor types, focus and significance of technological fields, foreign patenting and time frame, especially in the fields of embryonic stem (or ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (or iPS) cells. It is found that there has been a shift of innovation trajectories from ES to iPS cells. Both academic and/or medical institutions and firms have centered in the innovation system, but their roles differ across regions in term of innovation performance. The types of academia-centered, firm-centered and combined innovations in different regions are identified. The results highlight that regions and types of organizations significantly influence innovation activities in stem cells field due to different regional innovation strategies and regulations.