Impact analysis of biological technology: Application of network analysis and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory

Abstract

Biotechnology is regarded as a critical technology with high potential for far-reaching social, economical, technological impacts. However, when potential economic impacts of biotechnology are estimated, amount of data is scare to analyze the impacts. Thus, this paper aims at estimating the degree of impacts of the biotechnology industry to investigate how the technology affects other industries with quantitative data and methodology. For this, patent data are utilized to analyze the impacts on other industries, employing the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method (DEMATEL) and network analysis. Consequently, the impacts of biotechnology are relatively high among 24 technology classifications and besides, the impacts have increased over time. The results of this paper can help policy-makers devise appropriate technology policies by recognizing the importance of biotechnology. © 2013 American Scientific Publishers.