Research On The Co-opetition Relationship Of LED Manufacturers Based On Patent Information Analysis

LED is one of the most promising high-tech areas in the21st century. The big five LEDmanufacturers Nichia, Toyoda Gosei, Cree, Osram and Philips whose developments have asignificant impact on the industry, almost controlled the entire LED industry. Nowadays, thebig five manufacturers makes the patent network more closely through cross-licensing thatholds down the further development of the LED industry in China. This paper aims toexplore the competition and cooperation behavior among LED manufacturers by usingpatent information analysis, which not only enriched the traditional theory of co-opetitionand improved the theoretical system of patent information analysis, but also strengthened theco-opetition practical guidance for inter-organizational cooperation to our LED industry. Inparticular, provide information to support the development of LED industry by find theresources which can support competition and cooperation within the organization. Study thepossibility of transformation between partners and competitors, using the win-winperspective of tap potential for cooperation, while ensuring unique and difficult to imitativein their key field.This paper aimed to find out the antecedents for co-opetition relationship among LEDmanufacturers and explore the key resources to support competition and cooperationrelationship by using patent information analysis of the U.S. granted patents of the big fiveLED manufacturers.To observe the changes in LED industry, this paper provided a directmeasure of the patent concentration in LED industry based on patent citations. Themeasurement is related in spirit to the triad census undertaken in the analysis of networkstructures. The proposed framework uses association analysis on patents to identify theassociations between various technology fields. Based on the association analysis results, theframework designs three indicators: technology field scale (TFS), relative technologyadvantage (RTA), and relative technological integration capability (RTC) to reveal therelative advantage and technological relevanceof the big five manufacturers. The empirical study have shown that patent concentration of LED industry becomes lower and lower.Therefore, the relationships among five manufacturers were changed to co-opetition which iswin-win for them. The heterogeneity and interdependence of technical resources in the topfive manufacturers led to technology complementary, which is the prerequisite ofco-opetition formation. Our LED manufacturers should gain access to the cross-licensingrelationships of the top five manufacturers. Moreover, close interdependence co-operationnetwork should be built to improve the control of the market and resilience.