گزینش تحقیقات در زمینه های کلیدی در رشته نانو تکنولوژی با استفاده از تجزیه و تحلیل خوشه ای فن آوری: یک مطالعه موردی بر اساس برنامه های R & D ملی در کره جنوبی

In the early 21st century, Korean government issued a policy recommendation that Korean public research institutes should select strategic research fields to concentrate their resources, based on a careful review of the various strategic R&D factors. The government has emphasized the “selection and concentration” strategy for the efficient use of R&D resources and as a way to increase the national competitiveness of Korea. This paper suggests a method, a “Technology Cluster Analysis,” for selecting the strategic research areas, mainly targeting large, multi-disciplinary and long-term programs. The technology cluster analysis groups near technologies together based on key indicators. In this study, the method is applied to national R&D programs in the nano-technology field. Fifty-six nano-technologies are analyzed and grouped into three main clusters based on the survey data from 180 experts. Technological distances and correlations among individual technologies are depicted by hierarchical dendrogram. Three main clusters in nano-technology field are found and termed nano-materials, nano-devices, and nano-bio. These three clusters are expected to be the core technology clusters in nano-technology field in South Korea.

The national competitiveness of Korea in the 21st century hinges on the effective distribution and utilization of limited resources based on the strategy that guides the policy makers to specify target technology fields. Korean government and research institutes alike have exerted their concentrated efforts to develop world-class technologies by carefully examining future economy, market outlook, technological trends, and the current level of science and technology. In an effort to respond to such a demand, Korean government has introduced the ‘selective focus and concentration’ strategy where a great portion of national R&D resources are distributed primarily to the areas of strategic importance according to future strategic needs, technological competitiveness, and national growth/development agenda. One of the challenging issues in this regard is to locate the core areas of research on which national R&D investment efforts are to be exerted. Such areas should be those of great importance in enhancing industrial competitiveness of Korea and those which will create enormous market demand in the future at the national level. They should also represent the promising technologies, best utilizing human resources with a high potential of success, which make commercial links to the existing technologies and products possible (Tassey, 1997). Although many prior studies (Shehabuddeen et al., 2006) have focused on various technological prospects in an effort to find effective R&D mechanisms, in particular regarding national innovation systems of Korea (Lee, 2004; Lee and Park, 2005; Chung, 2001), studies to estimate promising future technologies based on the trends in technological complexity and convergence are scarcely few. Furthermore, the system of technology estimation and forecasting, which can be used to identify and plan core researches, is not yet well established. This paper is an attempt to rectify such a situation. The current study suggests the ‘technology cluster analysis’ as a method to select key fields of research, and applies it to the national-level R&D initiatives to derive important areas of research. We utilize the method to estimate the structure of R&D in the field of nano-technology and classify various sub-technologies into meaningful groups for R&D concentration. The method of identifying core research fields is comprised of three steps: (1) classifying technologies according to their purposes, (2) conducting a survey for a relevant group of researchers and scientists on the similarities and differences among sub-technologies, and (3) performing the technology cluster analysis. This research focuses especially on the technology cluster analysis step, where we group together those technologies with similar patterns of technological changes. We believe that the results can be used to assist planning for major research projects or to devise policies for different fields of technology. This research aims at applying the methodology to selecting core technologies in the nano-technology field in order to identify important sub-technological categories within the nano-technology field. This paper is structured as follows. Next part deals with the basic concepts of technology cluster analysis along with a short introduction to the related past studies. We then conduct a study applying the technology cluster analysis to the nano-technology field. Our findings are presented at the end with possible implications of the findings.

This study suggested the technology cluster analysis model to be utilized at a national R&D level for identifying core areas of research, and applied the model to nano-technology field. With the data drawn from 180 participants responding to a survey on 56 nano-technology list, three key technology clusters were formed. The technological proximity of each individual technology of each cluster was shown with the dendrograms. The three major technology clusters are nano-material-related cluster, nano-device-related cluster, and nano-bio-related cluster, which exactly match the core technology groups that the national-level R&D programs are currently covering. Furthermore, within a big frame, individual technologies of each cluster are also in line with those technologies researched by government-funded institutes and firms. An important contribution of study is that it provides a closer look at the relationships between individual technologies according to their levels. The technology cluster analysis method suggested a way of grouping innovative activities according to the magnitude of basic knowledge they share. Although the method used had the danger of producing subjective responses, we tried to keep the result more general and objective by conducting a large-scale survey. Therefore, this analysis can be considered a preliminary stage of clearly discerning a promising future. But in order to get a more precise estimation, there needs to be a survey on a larger pool of experts, conducted by the national R&D planning and managing institute. A way to improve the technology cluster analysis is to include experts from more diverse fields of research, thus expanding the technology–expert matrix. When policy makers and R&D planners design national R&D programs in emerging technology fields, they can gather experts’ opinions extensively and construct a structuralized list of emerging technologies to be developed through technology cluster analysis. It is particularly so in planning R&D programs in emerging technology fields, as we are short of information on patents and academic papers. The tool is applicable not only to catch-up countries but also to developed countries such as France (Ronde, 2001) if it deals with emerging technology field. In selecting core areas of research, unique and creative area of research along with future market size can become an important task. And especially for high-tech fields, studying only comprehensible areas and well-known papers that utilized limited domestic researchers may bind our potential to attain world-class skills. Therefore, in order to supplement such limitations, trend analysis, citation analysis, patent map, and science and technology document analysis should be carried out simultaneously along with technology cluster analysis. There are several avenues for further research efforts. One important application of technology cluster analysis is to use the method to ascertain the results of citation analysis and patent maps. In this case, we can use the method to complement the results of bibliometric studies in, especially, mature technology fields. We can also compare and contrast the clustering results across different nations. For example, the clustering results of US nano-technologies and that of Korea can be compared. This will provide ample insights in policy making and national R&D planning in the suggested areas of concern.