RESEARCH: Invention as a combinatorial process - evidence from US patents

Invention has been commonly conceptualized as a search over a space of combinatorial possibilities.

The research found that, notwithstanding the very reduced rate at which new technologies are introduced, the generation of novel technological combinations engenders a practically infinite space of technologic configurations.

Youn H, Strumsky D,Bettencourt LMA, Lobo J. 2015 Invention as acombinatorial process: evidence from USpatents. J. R. Soc. Interface 12: 20150272.http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2015.0272