A Methodology of Partner Selection for Sustainable Industry-University Cooperation Based on LDA Topic Model

Abstract

In today’s knowledge-based society, industry-university cooperation (IUC) is recognized as an effective tool for technological innovation. Many studies have shown that selecting the right partner is essential to the success of the IUC. Although there have been a lot of studies on the criteria for selecting a suitable partner for IUC or strategic alliances, there has been a problem of making decisions depending on the qualitative judgment of experts or staff. While related works using patent analysis enabled the quantitative analysis and comparison of potential research partners, they overlooked the fact that there are several sub-technologies in one specific technology domain and that the applicant’s research concentration and competency are not the same for every sub-technology. This study suggests a systematic methodology that combines the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model and the clustering algorithm in order to classify the sub-technology categories of a particular technology domain, and identifies the best college partners in each category. In addition, a similar-patent density (SPD) index was proposed and utilized for an objective comparison of potential university partners. In order to investigate the practical applicability of the proposed methodology, we conducted experiments using real patent data on the electric vehicle domain obtained from the Korean Intellectual Property Office. As a result, we identified 10 research and development sectors wherein Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) focuses using LDA and clustering. The universities with the highest values of SPD for each sector were chosen to be the most suitable partners of HMC for collaborative research.

OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy: Korea 2023

“…Nevertheless, industry-academic co-publications are declining in Korea, unlike most other leading OECD countries, for which the trend is stagnant or slightly increasing (Figure 4.4). Kang et al (2019) studied patenting behaviour in the electric vehicle domain. They found a strong concentration on the corporate side, with Hyundai Motors in the lead and significant contributions from LG Electronics and LSIS Co. On the academic side, the leading actor is the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), followed by Kookmin University and Korean Aerospace University (Kang et al, 2019[7]).…”

Influence of Industry-University Cooperation on Economic Development: A Mathematical Statistical Analysis

“…Enterprises, universities, and research institutes are the main sources of technological innovation. Industry-university cooperation refers to the cooperation between enterprises and universities in technological innovation [17]. Industry-university cooperation is essentially a combination of university knowledge production and the knowledge application in enterprise.…”

Communication Barrier, Spillover Effect and Industrial-Technological Innovation

“…A lot of work has been done. First, some scholars focus on the impact of university-firm combination on innovation: Kang [21] put forward that different types of subjects were recognized as an effective tool for technological innovation, and broke down the communication barrier effectively. As what Nave [22] argued, if we use university-firm cooperation as a way to promote sustainability practices, according to the information provided by the interview, the university-firm cooperation is more conducive for firm to solve their own problems through innovation.…”