Technological Positions and Capabilities: The Case of Large Taiwanese Semiconductors Manufacturing

Abstract

It is well understand that innovations and technologies rarely arise in isolation. Technological developments were accumulated or build up upon others. Enterprises invest huge of resources on R&D to maintain competitive advantages, and patents then identify their innovations. An important component of the patent application procedure is the prior art' provision. Patents that are identified as technological precursors to current innovations or technologies are referred to as prior art. Therefore, there are some relations and commonalities among technologies. Linkages of technologies evolve as citation network in any coherent domain. Patent citations can find out technological building relations among innovation and to identify technological positions. Citation network can trace out their possible technological trajectories. In this paper, we propose a citation-analytic approach for identifying firm's technological positions and for discussing the strengthness of technological capabilities and their evolution. The citation analyses and MDS configurations demonstrate the evolution of technological positions and the change of technological capabilities on the sample of 9 large Taiwanese semiconductors producers from 1991 to 2001.