Marine organizational collaborative network: Enhancing technological innovation for environmental monitoring

As climate change intensifies and ocean resource exploitation continues, the marine environment has gained increasing societal attention. Marine environmental monitoring technologies are crucial for ocean conservation. Collaborative innovation among interdisciplinary organizations is pivotal to technological advancement. However, the mechanisms underlying marine organizational collaborative innovation remain underexplored. This study constructs a collaborative innovation network using Chinese joint patent application data related to marine environmental monitoring buoy technologies. By employing visualization tools, we trace the evolutionary paths of the network and apply the Temporal Exponential Random Graph Model (TERGM) to examine the relationships between key factors and the network's formation and evolution. The findings underscore the roles of endogenous structures, node attributes, external conditions, and time dependence on network formation and evolution. The study also reveals the growing tendency for organizations to collaborate with those possessing similar technological knowledge structures. Identifying these key factors enables environmental advocates and policymakers to tailor strategies effectively in support of marine sustainable development. • Visualisation shows the evolution of marine monitoring collaboration networks. • TERGM analyses key factors shaping network formation and evolution. • Endogenous forces, external factors and time dependence affect network development. • Similar technological knowledge influences new collaborative partnerships. • Fills research gap on factors of collaboration in marine monitoring technologies.