Whereas prior innovation and strategy literature studied how attentional and search dynamics influence the creation of inventions, we examine how these same processes affect the impact of inventions after their creation. We theorize that inventions classified in “high‐contrast” technological categories garner more attention by potential users and, hence, accrue more citations than otherwise‐equivalent inventions classified in “low‐contrast” categories. We test this hypothesis via three studies. First, we estimate citation‐count models among all USPTO patents granted between 1975 and 2010. Second, we conduct a twin patents test comparing inventions patented both at the USPTO and at the EPO. Third, we examine minute‐by‐minute search logs from a sample of USPTO examiners. These studies support our hypothesis and extend current understandings of attentional and search dynamics in the innovation process.

中文翻译：

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发明的类别，注意力和影响

鉴于先前的创新和策略文献研究了注意力和搜索动力如何影响发明的创造，而我们研究了这些相同的过程如何在发明之后影响发明的影响。他们的创造。我们认为归类为“高对比度”技术类别的发明比潜在的用户吸引了更多的关注，因此与归类于“低对比度”类别的其他同等发明相比，其引文更多。我们通过三项研究检验了这一假设。首先，我们估算了1975年至2010年间授予的所有USPTO专利中的引用计数模型。其次，我们进行了一项双专利测试，比较了在USPTO和EPO上均获得专利的发明。第三，我们从USPTO审查员的样本中逐分钟检查搜索日志。这些研究支持我们的假设，并扩展了当前对创新过程中注意力和搜索动力的理解。