Abstract
The aim of this paper is to propose a method to investigate a firm’s strategic changes. Technologies or technological capabilities are a major resource for achieving competitive advantages, so a firm’s R&D effort to improve capabilities on specific technologies is aligned with strategic direction. Therefore, this research analyzes changes in R&D efforts by identifying key R&D personnel using patent co-inventor network and social network analysis. Based on characteristics of application and granted patents, the method analyzes current and future R&D efforts and so identifies strategic changes of a firm. We conducted an empirical analysis using the patents of Samsung Electronics. Our method analyzed the current and future strategies of Samsung Electronics and the result shows clear strategic changes in their focal technologies and business.
Highlights
In intense international competition and rapid technological change, companies have to build dynamic capabilities and continually adapt their corporate strategy to achieve sustainable competitive advantages
We provide a detailed description on the method and empirical analysis of Samsung Electronics case
Since this research aims at analyzing specific organizations, a patent set can be identified by using the assignee name of the target organization and collected from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) repository
Summary
In intense international competition and rapid technological change, companies have to build dynamic capabilities and continually adapt their corporate strategy to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. Even though there are many ways to secure technological capability from inside and outside the company, internal R&D is basically the most significant mechanism to gain technological capabilities. It is, logical that specific technological capabilities a company focuses its R&D effort on are aligned with the strategic direction of the company and so changes of technological capabilities or R&D efforts can explain strategic changes of a company, with technology-oriented companies [7,8]
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