Calvin S. Weng

CO-OPETITION STRATEGY FROM THE PATENT ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE: THE CASE OF THE STENT MARKET

Information about technological innovation and its evolutionary path can be explored by patent analysis. Therefore, for those firms which are dependant on large investments and a high business performance, such as stent manufacturers, integrating patent information with business strategy is the critical issue. The competition between stent manufactures is intensifying because of increasing global volume demand and improving technological performance. From a resource-based view, adopting a co-opetition strategy is essential for firms to keep sustainable competitive advantage. Over the last decade, patent rights have become a major tool of the co-opetition strategy. This study analyzes patent data from the USPTO during 1984 to 2005 and constructs patent information indicators to verify the process of technology evolution. On these grounds, we can understand the relative technological position and technological strength of the major manufacturers in this industry and also inspect their changes of position and business scope to examine the relationship between each firms technology strategy and business strategy.

Accessing External Technological Knowledge for Technological Development: When Technological Knowledge Distance Meets Slack Resources

This study elucidates how a firm accesses external technological knowledge (TK) and utilizes such TK, facilitated by slack resources, to determine the scope of technological development. We examine data from 947 cooperative technology agreements among 248 electronics and information technology firms in Taiwan. The results demonstrate that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between TK distance and the scope of technological development. Furthermore, we find that the moderating effect of unabsorbed slack can extend the inverted U-shaped relationship in the direction of higher levels of technological diversification and greater TK distance. Additionally, unabsorbed and absorbed slack, respectively, moderate the linear relationship between TK distance and a firms scope of technological development toward two striking favorable contrasts: technological diversification and specialization. Unabsorbed slack plays a positive catalytic role in the creation of technological diversification; however, absorbed slack does not serve such a role.

Technological position in alliances network

The purpose of this research was to examine the interactions between the focal firm (FF) and its technological alliance, and to enquire into the technological alliance network in shaping the firm position from innovative dynamics environment. 2-Mode network analysis was employed to explore the question of how technological position emerged from alliance interaction. Specifically, we looked at the network structure of the sample by examining the interactions of technological alliance. Our empirical data were from the ‘Strategic Alliance Database’ established by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. We identified technological position of firms from the 2-mode network analysis to resolve the highlighted question. Some results that we found were as follows: (1) The alliance network of IT technology approximated an ideal core/periphery structure. (2) The network structure apparently demonstrated that FF with a higher centrality has better opportunity to locate in the central position of FFs or in the core position in the technological network. (3) Alliance in core with a dense structure can better facilitate the utilisation of existing knowledge in refinement and extension of existing technologies. Alliance in the periphery with a non-dense structure is in a favourable position for matchmaking of experimentation and to serve as a bridge to introduce novel technologies.

A study of the entrepreneurship of Taiwanese youth by the Chinese Entrepreneur Aptitude Scale

Purpose – The purposes are as follows. First, this paper aims to explore the reliability and validity of the Chinese Entrepreneur Aptitude Scale (CEAS) and to establish a normative score among surveyed students. Second, this paper seeks to compare the scaling scores differences between the genders, departments, and classes in the sample. Finally, this paper aims to compare the student samples CEAS results with models of Taiwanese entrepreneurial youth.Design/methodology/approach – Completed questionnaires from 1,053 students from the Transworld Institute of Technology in Taiwan and the CEAS, constructed by Chen and Wu, formed the basis of the empirical analysis.Findings – This paper tests the performance of the CEAS for Taiwanese students at a technological institute that puts entrepreneurial education into practice. The results match those of Chen and Wu, which used qualitative methods to conduct a content analysis of the biographies of models of entrepreneurial youth in Taiwan. Both groups rank high in...

Do technology alliances benefit technological diversification? The effects of technological knowledge distance, network centrality and complementary assets

This study suggests that decisions regarding the scope of a technology base can be traced to factors (technological knowledge (TK) distance, network centrality and complementary assets) that govern the extent of technological specialization and diversification. Based on data from 2000–2007, for 248 electronics and information technology firms in Taiwan, we indicate that technology alliances do not encourage firms to diversify a technology base over time. Decisions in regards to the utilization of external TK can also be traced to TK distance, network centrality and complementary assets. First, TK distance has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the technology base scope. Second, the mere consideration of network centrality and TK distance cannot determine the technology base scope. Third, a firm converges its technology base through combined complementary assets with TK distance and network centrality.

Exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation in the phase of technological discontinuity: the perspective on patent data for two IC foundries

This study investigates how firms manage different innovation modes in the context of technological discontinuities. Using the aluminium-to-copper transition process, we collected patent data from the time period 1997 to 2001 for the top two firms in the IC foundry industry, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and the United Microelectronic Corporation. We suggest that environmental responsiveness to technological uncertainty can provide a background for understanding how incumbent firms respond to managerial challenges associated with the exploratory–exploitative innovation tension. The statistical results indicate that incumbent firms simultaneously conduct exploratory and exploitative innovation and, furthermore, engage in significantly more exploratory innovation than exploitative innovation when faced with technological discontinuities.

Core/periphery structure of the technological network

By applying a network analytical approach, this paper examines the position of technological network in shaping the contribution of a technology in technological development. Between the core and the periphery of the technological network structure, we argue that technologies which occupy an intermediate position are in propensity to seminal technologies, on the contrary, which occupy a peripheral position are to more tendency to succeed or derivative technologies. We empirically test the patent data of insurance business method and the theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Innovation Intermediaries in Technological Alliances

Technological alliances play an important role in generating innovations but face the challenge of effective matchmaking when finding suitable partners in “open innovation” among networks of innovating firms. Intermediaries refer to those external mechanisms/institutions that can appropriately support companies in their innovation-related activities. They are frequently used to build a bridge between different competency constraints among companies. The purpose of this paper was to try to understand the role of a firm’s alliances within the context of open innovation. What do innovation intermediaries of collaborative partners contribute?Using the “Strategic Alliance Database” established by the National Science Council (NSC) in Taiwan as a basis, this study empirically explored the brokerage roles in the alliance that intermediaries take on to facilitate technological innovation and an innovation process. By using the technique of two-mode network analysis for social network analysis, this research focused on the question of how a technological alliance creates a platform for firms to execute matchmaking for new and/or relevant partners. The results presented here reveal that brokerage roles can be used to develop collaborations. The strategic position of the intermediary can activate different resources from the ones embedded in an alliance network.

Patent analysis of technology-performance by integrating patent family and patent citation

The value of mechanical engineering patents often lies in innovative graphic designs and detailed complementary context. Therefore, without having the contents of a patent thoroughly examined by experts, we cannot understand its true innovation value by using the current information analysis technology. Since, the process of qualitative research, on the other hand, is a complicated and time-consuming task, this paper proposes a Key Patent Analysis Process (KPAP). KPAP uses the “focusing first, and then finding the details” idea to prove the feasibility of this method by giving a specific case. Firstly, we propose using a patent family to effectively retrieve the key patents to meet the requirements of the innovation design; then we propose proceeding to the next step using a patent citation to broaden the search field to thoroughly comprehend the development in a specific technology field. Finally, we use TRIZ to create a technology performance map and technology development niche, and to effectively solve the possible engineering obstacles that may come to mind at the detail designing stage. The model suggested by this research can indeed promote the effectiveness of patent technology to extract useful patent intelligence; moreover, it improves the overall efficiency of new product designs.

The Isomorphic Development of Insurance

In insurance industry, difference companies come to share similar technological bases of process. They not only share the same financial knowledge, but also utilize similar actuarial techniques to design products and assess insurable risks. This paper proposed an approach to look at the phenomenon of isomorphism of technological development in insurance. The result of this research also found the technological isomorphism in insurance already occurs. The contribution of this paper is to introduce the social network analysis into patent citations to foresee the technological development.