Abstract
Patents are important assets in a company. It not only represents the technology abilities, but also represents the competitive advantage of a company. Each patent owns different features that will affect the quality of patent in the future. Determining the impact from patent features to patent quality is always important for R&D strategies. In this study, social network is regarded as a mediator to explore the relationship between patent features and patent quality. The analytical results shows that patent features will affect patent quality through network position. Thus, this study provides a method for the purpose of predicting patent quality and finds that a patent with higher originality or shorter technology cycle time will enhance patent quality through network position. Patent features are different depending on variation of industry environment. Thus, this study further explores the moderation efficiency of patent types for finding the different behavior in citation network with different patent types. This study suggests that it is need to adjust R&D strategies by different purpose of using technology. At least for technology-oriented patents and service-oriented patents, the R&D strategies should be different between them.