Innovation as nation brand positioning: a comparative analysis of patents and publications

Innovation is increasingly mobilised as an asset in nation branding, yet many countries rely on convergent “innovation speak” that is weakly anchored in observable innovation activity. This study proposes a comparative, evidence-based approach to innovation-based nation brand positioning by deriving national specialisation patterns from the thematic content of patents and publications. Using Lens.org data for 2016–2025, we analyse 63,539 PCT patent applications (downstream technology) and 120,919 scientific publications (upstream research) from 13 Asia-Pacific economies. Titles and abstracts are modelled using BERTopic with domain-specific embeddings and topic reduction, resulting in 15 interpretable topics per corpus. Country–topic matrices are transformed into revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indicators to identify national specialisation patterns. Hierarchical clustering is then applied to group countries within the regional innovation space. The results reveal five recurring specialisation clusters characterised by distinct combinations of health-related, industrial connectivity, computational–biomedical, emerging technology, and bio-resource domains. Theoretically, the study advances innovation-based nation brand positioning and contributes to innovation diplomacy by operationalising innovation as comparative specialisation patterns rather than as a generic narrative. Practically, it offers a replicable diagnostic framework to support credible positioning and strategically aligned collaboration.