Technological Leadership in Industry 4.0: A Comparison Between Manufacturing and ICT Sectors Among Korean Firms

Abstract

This paper examines the technological structures of the manufacturing and the ICT sectors in Korea to examine the potential shift of dominant technological sectors in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). By using patent data of Korean firms from 1990 to 2021, we find that the manufacturing sector has been the dominant technological leader in Korea in terms of both the number of patents and the diversity of technologies, even in the era of 4IR. Although the ICT sector has shown an increasing focus on Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies after the 2000s, indicating the potential for a shift in dominance in the future, the gap between the two sectors is still significant. The study also reveals that the manufacturing sector tends to diversify technologies, while the ICT sector specializes in several target technologies. Our analysis also suggests that both sectors exhibit path-dependency, with the ICT sector exhibiting stronger characteristics, and firms in both sectors exhibit the tendency of intensive and extensive margin in their patenting activities, but this tendency is stronger for firms in the manufacturing sector.