경쟁-협력공존의 산업생태계에서의 기술전략: Apple-Samsung 특허분쟁 사례

The patent war between Apple and Samsung which started in the year of 2011 presents us a good example of a multifaceted technological strategies, frequently found in high-tech industries. The patent litigation represents a competitive structure, while the patent citation of counterpart’s technology demonstrates the underlying cooperative relationship between two leading firms in smart-phone industry. However, the previous studies have mostly concentrated on one aspect in inter-firm relationship, providing only a partial aspect of technological management issues often faced by high-tech companies today. We also have a limited understanding on the technological trajectory or how the core technology evolve over time in high-tech industry where technological knowledge is the main source of competitive advantage. To overcome the drawbacks in the previous studies, we examine the coopetitive nature of inter-organizational relationship with simultaneous perspectives of competition and cooperation in smart-phone industry. To this end, this study analyzes patent-litigation for revealing the competitive nature and patent-citation network for the cooperative nature by utilizing patent citation data. By doing so, we identify the specific patterns of technological knowledge flows and the direction of technological strategy and the relevant policy under the circumstance of coopetition ecosystem.