Recognizing the core technology capabilities for companies through patent co-citations

Companies, when crossing licenses with partners, are required to grasp not only their own, but also their partner's, core technology capabilities (TCs). Much effort has been devoted to identifying potential core TCs for companies. However, little research addresses the issue of recognizing existing core TCs for companies and their rivals. Without understanding of existing core TCs, companies cannot undertake feasible and comprehensive strategic R&D planning. Patents provide an objective and public source to understand core TCs of companies. In this paper, we propose a method to investigate core TCs through the co-citation structures in the patents. The proposed method considers the citation frequency and the age of the patent, to avoid identifying older core TCs. The method is demonstrated by recognizing core TCs for Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company (TSMC). The results show the core TCs for TSMC are found in not only in the semiconductor manufacturing process, but also in production control.