Understand technological innovation investment performance: Evolution of industry-university-research cooperation for technological innovation of lithium-ion storage battery in China

The evolution characteristics of the core network of the patent collaboration network in the field of lithium battery storage are compared with other fields such as phase change materials (PCMs) and the overall storage field in China by using the data from the Patsnap. Based on the trend of patent quantity, this paper chooses 2009 as the starting year to discuss the patent network in three stages: 2009-2012, 2013-2016, and 2017-2020. After 2009, new enterprises and institutions are more inclined to cooperate with institutions with high centrality when entering the energy storage field. Nodes with high centrality are mostly state-owned organizations or institutions with key technologies, which control network resources and influence network development. However, at the same time, the status of state-owned energy enterprises/institutions and universities in the cooperation network fluctuates, and they do not occupy an absolute leading position in the fields of lithium battery. The industry-university-research (IUR) cooperative network of lithium battery industry has the characteristics of tight internal node connection and sparse node connection among communities. On the whole, there is no continuous single (few) center (s) pattern in the three stages. This trend is contrary to previous studies on the overall field of energy storage. The different results got here maybe helpful for future IUR technology investment and decision-making.