Technological fusion and telemedicine in Japanese companies

Abstract

The extent of technological fusion has been widely regarded as a feature of Japanese companies. In this paper we look at the kinds of relationships observed at the company level in the emerging area of telemedicine. The linkages here are expected to be vertical between companies as well as horizontal. The data are derived from Japanese databases on both publications and patents, using keywords to identify imaging and communications related technological fields. Using multidimensional scaling techniques, we find marked distinctions at the company level between image and communications fields, and hence little evident fusion within companies. Using principal component analyses, we find specializations in imaging fields but greater clustering across communications fields. The latter are seen as providing the technological infrastructure for the former to develop within. At the industry level, NTT publishes a higher proportion of papers than it takes out patents, and this provides scientific infrastructure for the overall system. Specialist companies then undertake product development. Fusion thus takes place more at the industry level than the company level in telemedicine.