Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry
Radical innovations can shift the global competitiveness of entire nations. While countries typically struggle to absorb knowledge about novel technologies quickly, in which knowledge tends to be spatially sticky, an important exception is the fast catch-up of the Korean Li-ion battery industry from...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad28da |
| _version_ | 1827346396414476288 |
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| author | Leopold Peiseler Ye Lin Jun Nicolas Schmid Paul Waidelich Abhishek Malhotra Tobias S Schmidt |
| author_facet | Leopold Peiseler Ye Lin Jun Nicolas Schmid Paul Waidelich Abhishek Malhotra Tobias S Schmidt |
| author_sort | Leopold Peiseler |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Radical innovations can shift the global competitiveness of entire nations. While countries typically struggle to absorb knowledge about novel technologies quickly, in which knowledge tends to be spatially sticky, an important exception is the fast catch-up of the Korean Li-ion battery industry from Japan in the early 2000s. In this paper, we conduct an exploratory case study on this surprising success story. Focussing on patent co-inventions between Korea and Japan, we investigate their significance, as well as underlying types of co-inventions and types of transferred knowledge. To this end, we proceed in four steps: (1) a Poisson regression model; (2) social network analyses; (3) patent inventor tracking and (4) patent coding. Our results indicate that Korean–Japanese co-inventions hold significantly greater influence than other cross-country co-inventions, including with patents without cross-country collaboration. We find a pronounced knowledge-transfer intensity during the early 2000s and observe two types of co-inventions: organisation-level and inventor-level. Predominantly, we observe inventor-level co-inventions, i.e. Korean companies hiring experienced Japanese engineers, that proved important to transferring sticky knowledge. Moreover, while most patents target the design of core battery components, the share of manufacturing patents are—contrary to theoretical expectations—highest during the first half of the observation period. We also discuss our findings and draw implications for policy, industrial and academic players, including industry localisation policies, technology-inherent catch-up strategies and directions for future research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:29:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5b41dd7a852a4b23ba43088f2737e4aa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:29:34Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-5b41dd7a852a4b23ba43088f2737e4aa2024-02-20T17:26:04ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262024-01-0119303402510.1088/1748-9326/ad28daGlobalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industryLeopold Peiseler0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0273-7052Ye Lin Jun1Nicolas Schmid2Paul Waidelich3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5081-776XAbhishek Malhotra4Tobias S Schmidt5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7971-2187Energy and Technology Policy Group, ETH Zurich , Clausiusstrasse 37, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland; Materials and Device Engineering Group, ETH Zurich , Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland; Institute for Science, Technology and Policy, ETH Zurich , Universitätstrasse 41, CH-8092 Zurich, SwitzerlandEnergy and Technology Policy Group, ETH Zurich , Clausiusstrasse 37, CH-8092 Zurich, SwitzerlandEnergy and Technology Policy Group, ETH Zurich , Clausiusstrasse 37, CH-8092 Zurich, SwitzerlandClimate Finance and Policy Group, ETH Zurich , Clausiusstrasse 37, CH-8092 Zurich, SwitzerlandSchool of Public Policy, IIT Delhi; Hauz Khas , New Delhi 110016, India; Belfer Center, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University , 79 John F. Kennedy St, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States of AmericaEnergy and Technology Policy Group, ETH Zurich , Clausiusstrasse 37, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland; Institute for Science, Technology and Policy, ETH Zurich , Universitätstrasse 41, CH-8092 Zurich, SwitzerlandRadical innovations can shift the global competitiveness of entire nations. While countries typically struggle to absorb knowledge about novel technologies quickly, in which knowledge tends to be spatially sticky, an important exception is the fast catch-up of the Korean Li-ion battery industry from Japan in the early 2000s. In this paper, we conduct an exploratory case study on this surprising success story. Focussing on patent co-inventions between Korea and Japan, we investigate their significance, as well as underlying types of co-inventions and types of transferred knowledge. To this end, we proceed in four steps: (1) a Poisson regression model; (2) social network analyses; (3) patent inventor tracking and (4) patent coding. Our results indicate that Korean–Japanese co-inventions hold significantly greater influence than other cross-country co-inventions, including with patents without cross-country collaboration. We find a pronounced knowledge-transfer intensity during the early 2000s and observe two types of co-inventions: organisation-level and inventor-level. Predominantly, we observe inventor-level co-inventions, i.e. Korean companies hiring experienced Japanese engineers, that proved important to transferring sticky knowledge. Moreover, while most patents target the design of core battery components, the share of manufacturing patents are—contrary to theoretical expectations—highest during the first half of the observation period. We also discuss our findings and draw implications for policy, industrial and academic players, including industry localisation policies, technology-inherent catch-up strategies and directions for future research.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad28daknowledge transferco-inventionpatent analysisinnovationlithium-ion batteryJapan–Korea |
| spellingShingle | Leopold Peiseler Ye Lin Jun Nicolas Schmid Paul Waidelich Abhishek Malhotra Tobias S Schmidt Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry Environmental Research Letters knowledge transfer co-invention patent analysis innovation lithium-ion battery Japan–Korea |
| title | Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry |
| title_full | Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry |
| title_fullStr | Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry |
| title_short | Globalising innovation through co-inventions–the success case of the Korean lithium-ion battery industry |
| title_sort | globalising innovation through co inventions the success case of the korean lithium ion battery industry |
| topic | knowledge transfer co-invention patent analysis innovation lithium-ion battery Japan–Korea |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad28da |
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