Yongyoon Suh

Development of a GTM-based patent map for identifying patent vacuums

Highlights? Suggesting an approach for developing and utilizing GTM-based patent map. ? Employing text mining technique to extract meaningful information. ? Employing information visualization for identifying patent vacuums. ? Comparing the results with PCA and SOM-based patent map. The patent map has long been considered as a useful tool for mining latent technological information. Among others, the detection of patent vacuums, defined as unexplored areas of new technologies, deserves intensive research. However, previous studies for identifying patent vacuums on the patent map have been subjected to some limitations, stemming from the subjective and manual identification of patent vacuums. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a generative topographic mapping (GTM)-based patent map, which aims to automatically identify a patent vacuum. Since GTM is a probabilistic approach of mapping multidimensional data space onto a low-dimensional latent space and vice versa, it contributes to the automatic detection and interpretation of patent vacuums. The proposed approach consists of three stages. Firstly, text mining is executed in order to transform patent documents into keyword vectors as structured data. Secondly, the GTM is employed to develop the patent map, subsequently leading to the discovery of patent vacuums, which are expressed as blank areas in the map. Lastly, the meaning of each patent vacuum is interpreted by the inverse mapping of patent vacuums onto the original keyword vector. The case study is conducted with lithography technology-related patents. We believe the proposed approach not only saves time and effort for identifying patent vacuums, but also increases objectivity and reliability.

Effects of SME collaboration on R&D in the service sector in open innovation

Abstract This study analyses the eects of ftur types of collaborative activities on the R&D pelformance of service SMEs in the context of open innovation: in-house R&D (non-collaboration), technology acquisition, R&D collaboration, and networking. For this, the study employs data envelopment analysis, a power tool that uses multiple inputs and outputs to measure the relative efficiency of collaborative activities of service SMEsfir R&D. The results indicate that technology acquisition is the most efficient type of collaboration for R&D of service SMEs. More specifically, in-house R&D, technology acquisition, and Re9-D collaboration are positively related to product/service innovation, patenting activity, and process innovation, respectively. However, networking is not significantly related to any three types of R&D performance. In addition, the service SME1 strategicficus did not match their strategic purposes, suggesting a need fir adjusting their collaborative activities. The results have important implications for managers and policy-makers interested in facilitating open innovation in service SMEs through various collaborative activities.

A taxonomy of service innovations based on the innovative activity efficiency of service firms: a DEA approach

The lack of empirical studies on the relative efficiency of the innovative activities of service firms is one of the problems of monitoring growth of the service sector. To fill this void, from the perspective of efficiency, this paper provides empirical evidence on the efficiency of innovative activities. In addition, a new taxonomy of services that yields a dominant role to service firms is further proposed based on innovative activity efficiency. For this, using data envelopment analysis (DEA): 1) the relative efficiency of service firms is evaluated; 2) the optimal weights, which are called as efficient efforts, are used to develop a taxonomy by way of a new measurement concept. As a result, a taxonomy is proposed with four clusters: service improvement innovation, IT-based external process innovation, researcher-based patenting innovation, and physical resources-based new service and internal process innovation. The comparison of innovation patterns with previous taxonomies is also highlighted.

Generating new service concepts based on ontology integration

Despite the fact that the service concept generation is considered as a key factor for success of new service development, relatively little attention has been paid to how to generate new service concepts. In response, this paper proposes a novel approach to generation of new service concepts based on ontology integration. Since ontology aims to capture the specification of concepts in a specific domain, knowledge set of a domain composed of concept network with various descriptions and relationships can be derived. In addition, creative combination of concepts and relationships between different domains can be generated by integrating ontologies, which makes new service concepts to be generated. Thus, proposed approach suggests how to generate the new service concepts using ontology integration with three steps - construction of service concept ontology, integration of ontologies, and generation of new service concepts. The proposed approach is expected to help service managers to understand the structure of currently provided services and identify candidate service concepts to be generated, thus generate the new service concepts.