Complex Representation Method for Disruptive Characteristics of Patented Technology

The CD(Consolidation-Destabilization) Index, developed to quantitatively represent the disruptive characteristics of patented technology, is a metric calculated using consolidation and destabilization, which are defined based on citation networks. Although the widely used CD Index incorporates these two components―consolidation and destabilization―it has limitations that may distort the representation of technological disruptiveness. These include the use of subtraction between the two components and the excessive influence of forward citations from prior technologies. To overcome these structural limitations, this study proposes two novel representation methods: (1) the Complex CD Index, and (2) the Extended CCD Index. First, the Complex CD Index expresses consolidation and destabilization separately on a two-dimensional complex plane, replacing subtraction, which enables the representation of disruptiveness without information loss due to subtraction. Second, the Extended CCD Index expands upon the original CCD by incorporating the forward citations, which were previously excluded, while controlling their excessive influence to prevent reduced discriminative power between index values. The effectiveness of both proposed methods is validated through empirical experiments using USPTO patent data, demonstrating improved discriminative performance between different technology groups compared to the original CD Index. These proposed indices offer more reliable tools for evaluating the disruptive nature of technologies and hold potential for use in research performance evaluation and policy development.