A study on technology development strategy and collaborative relationships using patent information

Abstract

Japanese economy has fallen into a long downturn called “The Lost Two Decades” after the collapse of bubble economy in early 1990s. Many companies could not gain competitive advantages although they conducted various management reforms to restore their competitiveness. The companies that have played the main role of the Japanese economy growth until then have lost the sustained competitive advantage. Moreover, they have struggled in the global market even now. On the other hand, Japanese automobile companies have high competitiveness and market share due to their advanced technology development. It is considered that personnel groups engaged in research and development of their companies cannot turn into core rigidity and the structure also hinders new core capabilities. In addition, there is a hypothesis that the close relationships with many suppliers contribute to acquisition of competitive advantage. Therefore, this paper focuses on the collaboration relationships with suppliers and core rigidity of human resources related to research and development as the analysis factors. First, we analyze the composition and core rigidity degree of human resources involved in technology development by social network analysis using patent information, which represents the research and development capability. Second, we analyze the degree of collaboration among companies based on the hypothesis that advanced technology development can be executed by joint research and developments with many kinds of suppliers. As a result, features of close collaboration with suppliers and high core rigidity rate in the Japanese automobile industry are clarified.