This study proposes a methodological approach to investigate cross-country creativity/knowledge flows by analyzing patent citation networks, taking the aircraft, aviation and cosmonautics (AAC) industry as a case study. It aims at shedding some light on the following research questions: (a) how cross-country creative/learning flows can be investigated; (b) have countries of current patent owners benefited from patent acquisitions. In fact, despite the well-established economic interest for (analyzing and forecasting) innovation trajectories, this research area is still unexplored, thus, motivating the need for such study. Over 43,000,000 patents have been analyzed whereby: (a) owners have performed cross-country patent acquisitions; (b) acquired patents (granted within 2005–2009) are cited by subsequent patents (2010–2015). Methodology and results are scalable to other industries and can be exploited by managers and policy makers to: (a) help firms forecasting innovation trajectories; (b) support governments in designing/implementing measures nurturing patented innovations in industries deemed relevant to national interest.

本研究以飞机、航空和航天 (AAC) 行业为例，通过分析专利引用网络，提出了一种调查跨国创造力/知识流动的方法论方法。它旨在阐明以下研究问题：(a) 如何调查跨国创意/学习流动；(b) 当前专利所有人的国家是否从专利收购中受益。事实上，尽管对（分析和预测）创新轨迹具有公认的经济利益，但该研究领域仍未得到探索，因此需要进行此类研究。对超过 43,000,000 项专利进行了分析，其中： (a) 所有者进行了跨国专利收购；(b) 获得的专利（2005-2009 年授予）被后续专利（2010-2015 年）引用。方法和结果可扩展到其他行业，管理者和政策制定者可以利用这些方法：(a) 帮助公司预测创新轨迹；(b) 支持政府设计/实施措施，在被认为与国家利益相关的行业中培育专利创新。