Exploring information embedded in local network structure is essential for understanding the overall network structure and its functions. The development of innovation clusters in China’s Integrated Circuit (IC) industry has emerged as a key driver of industrial innovation. Different innovation clusters exhibit different collaboration patterns. Therefore, this study takes China’s Integrated Circuit Industry from 2011 to 2020 as the research object. It applies the motif-based method to analyze the three-node subgraphs and four-node subgraphs in the innovation network. The analysis focuses on collaboration patterns and the evolution of collaboration patterns, the distribution of collaboration patterns, as well as network motifs and network metrics. The results lead to the following conclusions. First, subgraphs featuring closed structures, particularly those with triadic closure, are identified as motifs and exhibit greater structural stability. In contrast, subgraphs lacking such closed configurations are classified as anti-motifs. However, transitions between anti-motifs and motifs are observed. Second, even systems of the same type may exhibit different subgraph ratio profiles and therefore belong to different motif families. At the same time, one motif superfamily may correspond to one or multiple motif concentration distributions. Third, network motifs in the innovation network are correlated with basic network characteristics.
Guo et al. (2026) studied this question.