Navigating a product landscape for technology opportunity analysis: A word2vec approach using an integrated patent-product database

Technology opportunity analysis has been the subject of many prior studies, although most of them have focused on discovering new technology ideas in a single narrow domain. This study proposes a product landscape analysis to identify product areas (i.e., potential technology opportunities) across multiple domains that firms can enter based on the technological capabilities embodied in their existing products. First, text mining is used to construct an integrated patent-product database from the United States patent and trademark database. Second, word2vec is employed to construct a product landscape as a vector space model where products with similar technological bases are located close to each other while maintaining the technological relationships. Third, given a product of interest, potential technology opportunities are identified via (1) automatic opportunity analysis that identifies product areas with technological bases similar to those of the product; and (2) interactive opportunity analysis that finds product areas based on experts’ queries modifying the technological bases of the product (i.e., addition and subtraction). Finally, ten quantitative indexes are developed to explore the implications of the potential technology opportunities identified. The case study covering 3,016,315 patents and 160,832 products confirms that the proposed approach is valuable as a creativity support tool for technology opportunity analysis in the era of convergence.     

Development of patent roadmap based on technology roadmap by analyzing patterns of patent development

Recently, patent forecasting and planning has been emphasized as an essential process in the strategic management of technology because well-planned patents will make larger profits and occupy dominant positions first. Thus, this paper aims to suggest the concept and process of a patent roadmap based on a technology roadmap and patterns of patent development. For this, first, ontology of technology is generated to structure the characteristics of technology based on the existing technology roadmap and then patents are collected from a patent database. Second, collected patents are grouped by similarities based on vectors of extracted keywords and grouping results are classified by TEMPEST. In this step, keywords extracted from the previous phase are matched with TEMPEST individually and patent groups are categorized in accordance with high relevance between representative keywords in patent groups and core keywords in each category of TEMPEST. Third, the patterns of patent development are identified for each patent group and categorized by two types – structural and temporal patterns. Consequently, extracted patterns serve as evidence of patent planning, and the patent roadmap is drawn with the technology layer composed of the technology roadmap and the patent layer that each group is mapped on. The proposed approach is illustrated by the case of the transparent AMOLED display. The patent roadmap will enable managers to establish patenting strategies in order to achieve a valuable core patent that has the potential to become a business model, yielding good returns in the long term.     

Commercializing inventions resulting from university research: Analyzing the impact of technology characteristics on subsequent business models

One of the key challenges in commercializing inventions arising from academic research is deciding on an appropriate business model for transferring the invention from the academic world to the commercial world. However, there is little empirical evidence to suggest which model to choose. This study attempts to address this gap by examining how characteristics of technologies affect the selection of business models.We consider four characteristics of technology: patent or other legal protection, specialized complementary assets, commercial uncertainty and technological dynamism. We relate these characteristics to the choice of three basic business models for commercializing inventions. Data for this study were gathered for 42 commercialized inventions.We found evidence that greater patent or other legal protection for the technology was associated with a greater likelihood that the technology was commercialized by transferring limited rights to the technology to existing firms. We also found evidence that greater commercial uncertainty was associated with a greater likelihood that the technology was commercialized by creation of a new firm or transfer of the rights to the technology to an existing firm. We did not find evidence of a relationship between the importance of specialized complementary assets or technological dynamism and the business model used.     

A systematic approach to prioritizing R&D projects based on customer-perceived value using opinion mining

As product development has recently emphasized user innovation, it should necessarily reflect customer-perceived value, as well as technological value itself. However, while previous studies for technology planning have focused on analyzing the potential of technology, they have not considered the customer-perceived value that technology can create in a new product. Therefore, this research suggests a new approach to assessing the level of technology and evaluating R&D projects, by investigating customer-perceived value on technology through the use of the structural equation model and opinion mining. For this, the assessment framework is developed in terms of technology, product quality, and customer satisfaction, respectively, by investigating a variety of databases on each factor. The relationship between technology level and customer satisfaction is analyzed, using structural equation model and opinion mining. Based on the results, a strategy for technology development is established through gap analysis and simulation, after selecting and evaluating technologies that need to be developed. The proposed approach is applied to the real case of a moving system, in particular an automobile door, and we obtained that an R&D project for hinge-related technology would be promising, enhancing the customer satisfaction. It can suggest a future direction for new technology development. This paper contributes to enhancing the efficiency of technology planning based on the customer-perceived value, enabling the launch of new R&D projects.     

论区域专利促进体系的构建

区域性专利促进体系的构建是区域政府实施国家知识产权战略的有效手段。区域政府应当依据专利制度的原理,全面考虑专利技术创造、专利成果应用和专利信息流通等方面的需要,通过一系列政策措施来构建高效运作的专利促进体系。     

专利文献在企业技术创新中的应用研究

专利文献是企业技术创新的重要信息来源,科学有效的使用,不仅可以极大地促进企业利用现有技术实现技术进步和创新,还能为企业发展提供法律保护、为经营战略实施提供帮助,使企业在技术竞争和市场竞争中赢得优势。     

基于专利生命周期的技术创新潜力分析——以广西汽车发动机技术为例

文章阐述了运用专利技术生命周期分析方法度量技术创新潜力的可行性和适用性,并以广西汽车发动机为例,在专利申请情况进行检索和分析的基础上,通过新技术特征系数、技术生长率、技术成熟系数和技术衰老系数等指数的测算,对技术创新潜力进行定性和定量分析,分析结果认为广西汽车发动机技术处于比较旺盛的生命阶段,在今后较长时期内存在着很大的创新空间和潜力。     

Determinants of industrial innovation in China: Evidence from its recent economic census

This study examines the sources of technological innovation in Chinese industries using the 2004 economic census data. On the one hand, it analyzes the relationships between patent grants and new product sales. On the other hand, it analyzes the relationships among in-house R&D, technology transfer from foreign and Chinese domestic technology markets, spillover effects of foreign investment, as well as export. The study reveals that in-house R&D has become the most important source for industrial innovation in China. In-house technological efforts are critical for developing original innovations as well as for absorbing the technologies transferred from external agencies. However, neither technologies transferred from foreign countries nor those from the domestic technology market are playing significant roles in China’s industrial innovation. The spillover effect of foreign investment on patent grants is strong and significant, though its impact on new product sales is insignificant. Export shows negative, though insignificant, impact on patent grants, but positive, strong, and significant effects on new product development. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate the critical role of in-house R&D in China’s industrial innovation.     

奇虎360科技有限公司专利管理地图分析

专利战略对于企业取得经济利益、获取竞争优势有着重要作用。本文运用专利管理地图分析方法,对奇虎360科技有限公司的专利类型、专利年代趋势、技术领域构成、主要发明人和主要竞争对手进行了分析:奇虎科技专利申请以发明专利为主,专利申请质量较高;主要集中在电学和物理两大技术领域;奇虎360发明人研发实力较强,其专利技术生命周期正处在由发展期向成熟期转变阶段。在互联网安全专利竞争领域,奇虎科技相对直接竞争对手占较大优势。文章最后对未来360专利战略的专利申请数量质量、专利人力资源管理、专利竞争对手监控、以及应对专利侵权纠纷方面提出相关建议。     

The inter-industry distribution of technological capabilities. A case study in the application of the Italian patenting in the U.S.A.

In this paper patent statistics are used as a technological indicator for the purpose of identifying the inter-industry distribution of technological capabilities. A matrix of Italian patents in the U.S.A. by industrial sectors and technological fields is discussed. This matrix, which is complementary to those devoted to inter-industry technology flows, is of interest to technology policy, since it indicates the sources of a given technological capability. The same matrix shows that the companies, and consequently the industrial sectors involved, are multi-technological in that they produce inventions in a wide range of technological fields. The present paper is an initial attempt to quantify this known fact.     

Innovation labs in the public sector: what they are and what they do?

This article is a first comprehensive attempt to globally map and analyse innovation labs (i-labs) in the public sector. The article analyzes theoretical reasons why i-labs are created in the public sector and tests these assumptions in practice. During the empirical study, thirty-five such organizations all over the world were identified. The research is based on a two-step approach: first, a comprehensive survey was carried out followed by an extensive in-depth interview with the managing figures of i-labs; eleven i-labs responded. The article finds support for the assumptions of external complexity, technological challenges, emulation, and legitimization as reasons behind the creation of i-labs.     

Process-based vs. product-based innovation: Value creation by nanotech ventures

Nanotechnology is frequently heralded as the next wave of technological advance, poised to enable radical innovation across many industries. But as yet little is known about how firms will ultimately create that value. We do know that nanotechnology is based on process innovation, a category of innovation less well understood than product innovation. And we know that new ventures are an important vehicle for commercializing radical technology. As new ventures seek to commercialize nanotechnology, they evolve value creation strategies to better link fundamental scientific advance with the creation of value for users and investors. This paper asks “How do the successful value creation strategies of technology ventures differ in process vs. product-based innovation?”An investigation of 12 ventures representing the extremes of value creation through process-based (nanotech) and product-based (fuel cell) innovation reveals significant differences in their value creation challenges, in the mechanisms of technology–market matching and alliance building, and in their levels of experimentation. Ventures exploiting process innovation faced greater uncertainty in their value chain positioning, market breadth, customization, and the changes required of their customers in contrast to product-based ventures. Our evidence shows that nanotechnology ventures benefit from prioritizing technology–market matching, alliance building and experimenting with technologies in new value networks.     

我国城市专利综合实力影响因素分析

专利是衡量城市科技创新能力的主要指标。本文运用主成分分析法,对我国4个直辖市和15个副省级城市的专利综合实力做出评分、排序和分级,揭示各城市间专利综合实力的差异。然后运用多元线性回归分析法,对19个城市的专利综合实力做回归分析,得出影响城市专利综合实力的主要因素,包括人均科技支出、固定资产投资总额、科技人员占从业人员的比例、每百人公共图书馆藏书和人均电信业务总量。     

Creating technology candidates for disruptive innovation: Generally applicable R&D strategies

In this paper, we first examined the importance of technology creation in technological disruptive innovations (DIs), and found both academic scholars and industrial practitioners have underestimated the challenging nature and importance of technology at least in technological DI. We then moved upstream to study empirically how technology candidates could be created purposefully for potential technological DI. Four generally applicable R&D strategies were abstracted from intensive studies on 37 technological DIs, by applying the central thoughts of principal component analysis which transforms many correlated variables into a small number of uncorrelated ones. The four R&D strategies abstracted are miniaturization, simplification, augmentation and exploitation for another application. Their creation of DI was examined, postulated and then demonstrated by means of the Delphi method. The frequencies of their utilization were also compiled and the implications discussed. This study has further advanced the knowledge at the front-end of R&D, i.e. the technology perspective of DI. It hopes to facilitate more purposeful creation of technology candidates for potential technological DI in future.     

基于博弈的专利诉讼与交叉许可决策研究

随着企业研发能力和知识产权保护意识的逐渐增强,越来越多的企业通过建立专利壁垒来保证自身的持续竞争力与市场地位。"专利丛林"的现象导致企业进行技术创新以及新产品的开发举步维艰。为了节省成本,科技企业之间相互的专利侵权现象时有发生。面对相互的专利侵权现象,有的企业运用专利诉讼的手段与对方发起"专利大战"以维持自身的竞争优势,也有的企业通过专利的交叉许可协议,与对方建立长期的专利合作关系。本文通过构建博弈模型,研究了企业进行专利诉讼以及交叉许可的选择决策的机理。     

Identifying and evaluating strategic partners for collaborative R&D: Index-based approach using patents and publications

Identifying and selecting appropriate strategic partners have been the subject of many previous studies: but most have dealt with partner selection that has relied heavily on experts' judgements: the value of a literature-based quantitative approach as a source of technology intelligence has seldom been addressed. This paper therefore aims to develop a systematic framework to guide strategic partner selection, taking a literature-based approach. Reviewing the factors that can lead to successful R&D partnerships to develop partner selection criteria, we designed 14 indexes – grouped into four major categories – to reflect desirable partner characteristics, and used the literature data to suggest a framework for prioritising potential partners. As data sources, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the ISI Web of Science databases are adopted for patent analysis and publication analysis, respectively. This research applied the framework to identify strategic R&D partners for Korean firms and found that the use of literature data enabled a wide ranging search for potential partners and the quick analysis of their characteristics, with results that provided objective evidence for selection decisions. It also investigated the relative importance of literature databases and that of the four decision criteria by industry, and examined the relationships between the indexes to improve the application of the framework. The suggested framework is expected to be valuable as a complementary tool for decision-making about R&D collaboration.     

Mapping the innovation production process from accumulative advantage to economic outcomes: A path modeling approach

The research about the innovation production process (IPP) is burgeoning. Our understanding of the interdependent interactions between functionally distinct innovation activities during it from a systemic perspective is rather unclear, yet, which is beneficial to empirical innovation management. This study, based on systems thinking, presents a novel analytical framework to empirically and quantitatively map the IPP jointly associated with a path modeling approach, which helps in untangling the interactive mechanism between stage-specific innovation activities with distinct functions within an IPP from accumulative advantage to economic outcomes. We use the attractive analytical framework to guide an empirical investigation to the China's high-tech industries' IPP at the macro-regional level. Our empirical study confirms the dominant role of previous innovation capital accumulation in the whole IPP embedded into regional innovation systems of China's high-tech industries. That is, we prove the existence of accumulative advantage phenomenon in the regional IPP. The examination results show that there is a significant Matthew effect of technological innovation accumulation on technological innovation inputs as well as the Path dependence of technological innovation outputs/outcomes on technological innovation accumulation. This indicates that the innovation-practitioners should promote innovation capital accumulation for sustainable innovations and economic profits in a long time. At the same time, our findings suggest that, in order to alleviate the cross-regional unbalance of innovation development and promote radial innovations in China's high-tech industries, both policy-makers and innovation-practitioners should try to get rid of the dependence on the previous accumulated innovation capital.     

Revisiting the role of modular innovation in technological radicalness and architectural change of products: The case of Tesla X and Roomba

The management literature defines modular innovation as a way to make technological changes in product modules that does not necessarily change the product architecture. However, engineering science shows that new product modules not only change the product architecture, but they can also be used for technologically radical next generation products. Therefore, there seems to be a misalignment in how the role of modular innovation is seen as an innovation management phenomenon and the actual practice of product design and engineering. We revisit the role of modular innovation by combining management and engineering approaches. We demonstrate the applicability of this approach through two cases that utilize patent data of two recent technologically innovative products: Tesla's Model X and iRobot's Roomba automated vacuum cleaner. The examples show, in detail, how the changes in product modules and functions have led to broader changes at the system architecture level, leading to new functionalities. The findings contribute to the innovation management literature by identifying a more nuanced role of modular innovation by embedding it in the product architecture, thus broadening the discussion on architectural innovation and technological radicalness.     

The origins,development and future directions of data envelopment analysis approach in transportation systems

Over the last two decades, application of Data envelopment analysis (DEA) in transportation problems have gained considerable research attention. This paper presents a literature review and classification of the applications of DEA in transportation systems (TSs). First by classifying 40 papers from 2007 to 2018, the origins of DEA in transportation problems have been reviewed. Then the development and an overall view of DEA applications in TSs have been presented. We have classified the applications of DEA into six different contexts. In each context, published papers have deeply been analyzed. Content of analysis includes “Number of published papers during the time”, “target journals”, “countries”, “keyword frequency”, “most cited papers”, “map of most co-cited publications”. More important, we reported the “inputs and outputs variables” used in each paper. Further “a review of the selected papers” and “gaps/future research directions” have been given within each cluster. The results show that DEA is one of the most useful approach in evaluating TSs for policy makers. On the other hand, DEA can help the decision makers in transportation especially regarding environmental factors, sustainable development and eco-design. Finally, we proposed subjects for future researches including guidance for new studies in the field of DEA applications in TSs.     

Rethinking determinants of ICT acceptance: Towards an integrated and comprehensive overview

In the contemporary ICT environment, we are confronted with a growing number of failing innovations. New technological innovations often fail because too much attention is still given to (technical) product-related features without taking into account the most important parameters of user acceptance. In addition, suppliers of ICT products often lack accurate insight into the distinguished profiles of their (potential) target audience. In this article theoretical considerations and empirical results on this matter are highlighted. First of all, an approach is proposed in which more traditional and often scattered vision(s) on adoption determinants are broadened into an integrated framework. The approach provides a stronger base for better targeting of (new) users of technologies. Secondly, the authors elaborate on this by rethinking these determinants with regard to later adopters. Later adopters (or even non-adopters/users) are often ignored in technology acceptance research. However, especially for policy purposes, the understanding of why people do not adopt or do not use ICT is strongly relevant in the light of the development of an inclusive information society. Both approaches are illustrated by case studies starting from a common list of nineteen ICT appropriation determinants. This framework enables to better profile both earlier and later adopters as well as it allows to formulate recommendations how to bring innovations in the market. Summarizing, this contribution offers an integrated approach on technology acceptance research by bridging the gap between a market and a policy-oriented point of view.