Breadth and Depth of Main Technology Fields - An E

ScienceandTechnologyPoliciesResearchCenterMiddleEastTechnicalUniversityAnkara06531Turkey:AnEmpiricalInvestigationUsingPatentDataMügeÖzmanScienceandTechnologyPoliciesResearchCentreMiddleEastTechnicalUniversityBreadthandDepthofMainTechnologyFields:AnempiricalinvestigationusingpatentdataMugeOzmanMiddleEastTechnicalUniversityScienceandTechnologyPolicyStudiesResearchCentree-mail:[e-mail]6,2007AbstractRecentlyworkontechnologicalchangehasemphasizedtheimportanceandimplicationsofdi¤erentknowledgebasesamongindustriesintermsofinnova-tivepotential.Insomeindustries,productsandprocesseshavebecomemorecomplex,aswellasthereappearstobeincreasedconvergenceinsomemarketsegments.Althoughincreasingattentionhasbeengiventofeaturesofknowl-edgebases,therehavebeenlimitedempiricalresearchonhowtomeasurethem.Inthispaperamethodisproposedtomeasureempiricallythebreadthanddepthdimensionsofmaintechnology…elds,sectorsand…rmsintheeconomy.Forthispurpose,wemeasuretheknowledgebasesof30maintechnology…eldsbyusingtheconceptsofbreadthanddepth.Breadthcorrespondstotherangeofdi¤erentsubjectsthatatechnology…elddrawsupon.Depthreferstotheextenttowhichacertain…eldisexploitedindetail.Wepositionthemaintech-nology…eldsinthebreadthanddepthspacebyutilizingtheEPO(EuropeanPatentO¢ce)databasebetween1978-2000.Wealsopresenttheevolutionofbreadthanddepththroughtime,aswellasthebreadthanddepthdimensionsof40largest…rmsinbiotechnologyandtelecommunications.Ourresultsrevealthatthebothtechnology…eldsand…rmsarelargelyscatteredinthebreadthanddepthspace.Biotechnologystandsouttohavethehighestbreadthanddepth.KeyWords:Patents,Breadthanddepth,technology…elds,knowledgebase.11IntroductionRecently,workontechnologicalchangehasemphasizedtheimportanceandimplica-tionsofdi¤erentnatureofknowledgebasesofbothindustriesand…rmsintermsoftheire¤ectoninnovativeperformance(NestaandSaviotti,2004)andorganizationalstructure(Orsenigoetal.,2000;DosiandHobday,1999;Prencipe,2000;BrusoniandPrencipe,2000;Ozman,2005;Cowanetal.,2004).Researchinthisareasug-geststhatinsomeindustries,productsandprocesseshavebecomemorecomplex,aswellasthereappearstobeincreasedconvergenceinsomemarketsegments,whichobviouslyin‡uencesthee¢cientchoiceoforganizationalstructure.Forexampletheliteratureoncomplexproductsystemsstressestheimportanceoftheharmonybe-tweencomplexityinproductsandorganizationstructure.Inaddition,anexpandingareaofresearchisconcernedwiththecharacteristicsoftheknowledgebaseof…rmsaswellasindustries,drawingadistinctionbetweentechnologyandproductboundaries(BrusoniandPrencipe;2000;Brusonietal.,2001).NestaandSaviotti(2004)analysethediversityandcoherenceofknowledgebaseofpharmaceutical…rmsandconcludethatbothhasapositiveandsigni…cancein‡uenceoninnovativeperformanceofthe…rm.Intheliterature,complexityintheknowledgebasehavebeentakeninvariousways.Oneofthecommonlyusedframeworksisrelatedtothenumberofcomponentsandinterdependenceamongthem(Simon,1969;ZanderandKogut,1995;Kau¤man,1993)Amongthese,WangandTunzelmann(2000)de…netwodimensionsofcomplex-ityasbreadthanddepth.Complexityindepthrefersto“analyticalsophisticationofasubjectwhichbecomescomplexbecauseofthecognitivedi¢cultyinpushingtheparticularmattertoitslogicalextremes”(p.806).Whereascomplexityinbreadthrefersto“therangeofareasthathavebeeninvestigatedtodevelopaparticularsub-ject”.Inshortdepthisconcernedwiththelevelofsophisticationandbreadthisconcernedwiththelevelofheterogeneity.De…nedinthisway,productcomplexityinbreadthreferstotheembodimentofalargernumberofcomponents/assemblieswhichmakesupaproduct,whereasdepthdimensionreferstothedegreeofcognitive2complexityembodiedinthesecomponents.Thereforechangesincomplexityinonedimensiondoesnotnecessarilyin‡uencecomplexityintheother.Althoughincreasingattentionhasbeengiventothecharacteristicsofknowledgebasesinrecentyears,therehavebeenrelativelylimitedattemptstomeasurefeaturesoftheknowledgebasesempirically.Thispaperisanattemptinthisregard.Itisbelievedthatempiricalresearchinthisareaisverylimitedandhighlyvaluable,topermitstudyingthee¤ectofknowledgebasesoninnovativeperformanceandalsoorganizationalstructures.Theaimofthepaperistopresentamethodologytomeasurethebreadthanddepthdimensionsofmaintechnology…elds,andapplythismethodologyto30maintechnology…elds.Thesamemethodologyisusedtomeasurethebreadthanddepthdimensionsof40largest…rmsinbiotechnologyandtelecommunicationssectors.Inthecontextofthestudy,thefollowingquestionsareaddressed:Howhavetheknowl-edgebasesofthemaintechnology…eldsevolvedovertime?Howdo…rmscomparetoeachotherintermsofthebreadthanddepthoftheirknowledgebases?Toaddresstheabovequestions,thepatentdocumentistakentobeaproductofinnovatione¤orts,andthemaintechnology…eldsarepositionedinthebreadthanddepthspacebyutilizingtheEPOdatabasebetween1978-2000.Ameasureofbreadthanddepthisconstructedforeachpatenttakeninthementionedperiodaccordingtotechnology…eld.The…rstpartofthepaperisconcernedwiththedescriptionofhowbreadthand