Shipbuilding Industry’ Technology Innovation Capabilities from the Perspective of Patent Portfolio: Comparison of China, Japan and South Korea

Abstract

Taking the ship that is typical complex product as the research object, and the national shipbuilding industry patent database as the data source. Through the establishment of a set of patent portfolio analysis indicators, there is a comparative study of the shipbuilding technology innovation capabilities of China, South Korea, and Japan, respectively from three major technical fields (hull structure technology TP1, ship power plant technology TP2 and ship outfitting and other equipment TP3) and three indicators of R&D efficiency, R&D scale, and R&D speed (relative to patent position RPP, explicit patent advantage RPR, and relative growth rate RDGR). The results show that China, Japan and South Korea have different technological innovation capabilities in the shipbuilding industry, due to different development histories and adopting different technological innovation strategies. However, as a whole, Japan and South Korea have great advantages in their respective core technology areas. At present and for some time to come, Japan will pay more attention to R&D efficiency, South Korea will pay more attention to R&D scale, and China will pay more attention to R&D speed.