Identification of a technological chance in product-service system using KeyGraph and text mining on business method patents

Abstract

Notwithstanding the prevailing trend towards a product-service system (PSS), literature has not fully supported a company's PSS innovation due to an absence of available data and a lack of quantitative methodology. In particular, despite the importance of technology in PSS, literature has paid little attention to technology as an innovation source of PSS. In order to fill this academic and practical lacuna, this study proposes a database-centred approach for the identification of technological chances in PSS as an innovation source. For analysing PSS innovation, business method (BM) patents are utilised as a data source; further, the complementary pair of KeyGraph for chance discovery and text mining for knowledge discovery is systematically applied as a quantitative methodology. To illustrate the utility of the proposed approach, the case study of PSS in the mobile area is presented.