arXiv · 2603.17881
Towards Measuring Disruptive Innovation Across Countries
Abstract
The CD index is a widely used measure of disruptive inventions. Most studies compute it using USPTO data. This creates a puzzle because the US appears less disruptive than European and Asian countries. We show that this largely stems from missing international citations. Using a global citation network, we quantify and correct this bias. The disruptiveness advantage of non-US inventors drops by 64% to 148% of the US baseline mean. The US emerges as a disruption leader over Europe, with Asia's advantage substantially reduced. Globally integrated citation data are essential for credible measurement of disruptive innovation in international contexts.
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Christian Rutzer, Dragan Filimonovic, Jeffrey T. Macher, Rolf Weder. 2026-03-18. Towards Measuring Disruptive Innovation Across Countries. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.17881
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