Empirical analysis of strategy selection for the technology leading and technology catch‐up in the IT industry

Abstract

R&D strategies of companies with low and high technological levels are discussed based on the concept of technology convergence and divergence. However, empirically detecting enterprise technology convergence in the distribution of enterprise technology (total productivity increase) over time and identifying key change factors are challenging. This study used a novel statistical indicator that captures the internal technology distribution change with a single number to clearly measure the technology distribution peak as a change in critical bandwidth for enterprise technology convergence and presented it as evidence of each technology convergence or divergence. Furthermore, this study applied the quantitative technology convergence identification method. Technology convergence appeared from the separation of total corporate productivity distribution of 69 IT companies in Korea in 2019–2020 rather than in 2015–2016. Results indicated that when the total technological level was separated from the technology leading and technology catch‐up, IT companies were found to be pursuing R&D strategies for technology catch‐up.