Authors
Yousin Park1, *, Iori Nakaoka2, Yunju Chen3
1Dept. of Business Administration, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, 1-1-71 Ujina-Higashi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Pref., 734-8558, Japan
2Dept. of Business Administration, National Institute of Technology, Ube College, 2-14-1 Tokiwadai, Ube City, Yamaguchi Pref., 755-8555, Japan
3Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, 1-1-1, Banba, Hikone City, Shiga Pref., 522-8522, Japan
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Corresponding Author
Yousin Park
Received 31 October 2018, Accepted 21 May 2020, Available Online 9 October 2020.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2991/jrnal.k.200909.009How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Technological discontinuities; radical innovation; R&D strategy; automobile companies; patent analysis
Abstract
This paper focuses on patterns of innovation and the R&D strategy of automobile companies for technological changes. Tushman and Anderson (1986) pointed out that there are two types of technological changes: incremental technological change and radical technological change. In particular, radical technological change may largely affect existing companies and new entrants for gaining competitive advantage in the emerging market. To examine this proposition, we use the patent information of existing automobile company (Toyota) and new entrants (Tesla, BYD) to analyze their R&D strategies on electric vehicle by social network analysis and cluster analysis. The analyses in this paper include the following: (1) To capture the radical and incremental technological changes from each company’s R&D projects, and visualize these changes, (2) To examine the relationship between technological discontinuities and the R&D strategies of automobile companies. We conclude that patterns of corporate R&D strategy that cope with the threat of radical technological changes differ from company in automobile industry, and we suggest the reason that cause this difference.
Copyright
© 2020 The Authors. Published by ALife Robotics Corp. Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).