8 research idea notes tagged “innovation”. Read them as Markdown, JSON or an Atom feed.
Green innovation is one of the largest topics in the finance and economics journals, much of it counting the green patents of Chinese firms. Only 10 of 641 recent papers on it carry a patent-quality, citation or novelty keyword. Is the boom in green patents a boom in green technology?
Papers in the last 30 days — green innovation: 25 · green patents: 2
University spin-offs and university entrepreneurship are among the fastest-growing keywords in the management journals, while AI research shifts from universities to companies. Only 2 of 37 recent papers on academic entrepreneurship mention AI. Do universities still turn AI research into startups, or does industry absorb the talent first?
Papers in the last 30 days — university spin-offs: 1 · technology commercialization: 1
Industrial upgrading is a large topic in the finance and economics journals, and China installs more industrial robots than any other country. Yet of 397 recent papers with a robot keyword, only 2 carry an industrial-upgrading keyword. Do robots move Chinese firms up the value chain, or just replace workers in the same tasks?
Papers in the last 30 days — industrial robots: 4 · industrial upgrading: 5
Tax incentives appear on 47 recent papers and R&D investment on 267, but R&D tax incentives on only 5, and 26 of 75 incentive papers touch innovation. Governments spend heavily on R&D tax relief. How much of the reported increase in R&D is real research, and how much is ordinary spending relabeled?
Papers in the last 30 days — R&D tax incentives: 1 · tax incentives: 3
Industrial policy and place-based policy are both rising in the economics journals, and governments now subsidize chip plants in specific towns, from Arizona to Kumamoto. Yet only 4 of 127 recent papers on such policies mention semiconductors. Do these plants create lasting local clusters, or expensive islands?
Papers in the last 30 days — industrial policy: 5 · place-based policy: 2
Open innovation and crowdsourcing appear on 71 recent papers, mostly in management, but only 3 of them carry an AI keyword. Firms ran idea contests and crowdsourcing platforms to get ideas from outside. If a language model can generate thousands of ideas in an hour, what is the crowd still for, and how do firms tell good ideas from fluent ones?
Papers in the last 30 days — open innovation: 2 · crowdsourcing: 1
Corporate venture capital is a small but rising keyword, with 7 papers in July–September 2026 against about 3 per quarter before. Large technology firms now invest in AI startups that also buy their cloud and chips. Is this venture investing, customer financing, or a way to buy talent without a merger?
Papers in the last 30 days — corporate venture capital: 2 · open innovation: 2
Patents appear on 377 recent papers, and patent quality on 24, but only 32 of the patent papers carry an AI or software keyword, and "AI patents" on 14. AI patent filings have exploded, especially in China, while much AI progress is published as open code. What do AI patents protect, and do they predict anything?
Papers in the last 30 days — AI patents: 1 · patent quality: 1