Abstract
Various strategies and policies have been established to facilitate technological convergence as it becomes increasingly important. However, the current status and progress direction of technological convergence is still not clear, as it is difficult to define and measure convergence phenomena. In this situation, this study examines how technological convergence has continued in Korea’s information and communication technology (ICT) industry, and, further, which cooperative innovation strategies are more effective in technological convergence. In this study, the convergence level of Korean ICT is measured using patent data from 2011 to 2015. Further, this study analyzes the impact of cooperative innovation strategies on Korean ICT convergence. It is believed that, by classifying technological convergence patent applications by the scope of convergence, the declining inter-field and inter-sector technological convergence has caused a decrease in the number of technological convergence patent applications since 2011. An analysis of the correlations between the strategies and performance of technological convergence indicates that ICT firms’ licensing activities play a positive role in creating technologically convergent performance. Specifically, cooperative innovation strategies for not only licensing but also external research contracts and joint research are determined to positively affect performance in inter-sector technological convergence. Meanwhile, only the licensing strategy in inter-field convergence correlates with technological convergence performance. These results will help interpret the driving forces of technological convergence.
Highlights
With accelerating technological convergence and intensifying market competition, firms are pursuing open innovation by sharing their own knowledge and strategically utilizing external capabilities, rather than traditional, internal, and closed research and development (R&D) [1]
This paper focuses on technological convergence in information and communication technology (ICT) industry because the Korean government regards it as a core domain for facilitating technological convergence, and ICT convergence, combining ICT with other technologies, has continuously increased providing bundled digital products and services to consumers in the integrated ICT ecosystem [33,34]
This paper focuses on the trend of technological convergence during 2011–2015 when patents were applied as a result of ICT convergence under these in 2008, “basic plan for object communications” in 2009, and “basic plan for Internet of Things” in 2S0us1t4aintaobislittrye2n01g7t,h9e, 1n60t1he competitiveness of the R&D for ICT convergence
Summary
With accelerating technological convergence and intensifying market competition, firms are pursuing open innovation by sharing their own knowledge and strategically utilizing external capabilities, rather than traditional, internal, and closed research and development (R&D) [1]. Many previous studies primarily analyzed the determinants that affect cooperative innovation strategy. These studies verified results through case studies of big companies or by using questionnaire surveys. Only a few empirical researchers have identified the correlations between a firm’s cooperative innovation strategies and its performance by utilizing actual data, and no scientific consensus exists regarding these results [12,13,14]
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