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Mapping and identifying technological coopetition: a multi-level approach

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Abstract

Firms competing over technologies are often forced to collaborate while pursuing their risky research and development (R&D); this is called “technological coopetition.” Such coopetition creates complex interfirm technological relationships, which vary according to the technology field wherein the competition and cooperation are occurring. This study proposes a framework by which to map and identify technological coopetition at both the interfirm and industry levels in order to clarify the complex relational state of technological coopetition. The framework distinguishes between coopetition types by considering the relatedness between the technology areas in which competition and cooperation occur, while showing how interfirm relationships change over time. At the industry level, the framework shows the technology fields in which competition, cooperation, and coopetition occur frequently. We illustrate the framework by applying it to the semiconductor industry. This study is expected to contribute to the coopetition literature as well as R&D management practice.

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Notes

  1. From a report of the 2015 Semiconductor Industry Association (source: https://www.semiconductors.org/global-semiconductor-industry-posts-record-sales-in-2014).

  2. “Concept of a Technology Classification for Country Comparisons” Final Report to the World Intellecutal Property Organization(WIPO), June 2008.

  3. http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/Extreme-Results-In-Top-25-2011-Semiconductor-Sales-Ranking/

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Funding

This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant No. 2020R1A2C2005026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, Yonsei University, 134 Shinchon-dong, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea

    So Yoon Yoon, Su Jung Jee & So Young Sohn

  2. SK Telecom, Seoul, South Korea

    So Yoon Yoon

  3. Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK

    Su Jung Jee

Authors
  1. So Yoon Yoon
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  2. Su Jung Jee
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  3. So Young Sohn
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Su Jung Jee or So Young Sohn.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Tables 5 and 6.

Table 5 Inter-firm coopetition in the first period
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Table 6 Inter-firm coopetition in the second period
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Appendix 2

See Table 7.

Table 7 Description of the ten major subgroups of industry-level competition, cooperation, and coopetition (2009–2013)
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Yoon, S.Y., Jee, S.J. & Sohn, S.Y. Mapping and identifying technological coopetition: a multi-level approach. Scientometrics 126, 5797–5817 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04005-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04005-x

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