기술테마 분석을 통한 기술기회발굴 연구―3D 프린팅 기술 사례를 중심으로―

Technology opportunity discovery enables us to identify changes in technology trends and to derive new technological ideas from the future-oriented perspective. Researchers have been actively working on establishing a systematic procedure for discovering technology opportunities. However, they are limited in not sufficiently considering the suitability of the company that seeks to discover new technology opportunities, such as assuming only a fixed type of scenario between product and technology, or using only the technological capability for matching technology opportunities. This study aims to present a patent-based approach to discovering technology opportunities by analyzing the relationships between technology themes that describe specific technological implications as a set of technology attributes. In addition, a case study is conducted in the field of 3D printing, which is causing a substantial change in the product manufacturing system, so that the practical usability of the results of this study can be examined. This study is expected to ultimately play a role as a next-generation R&D planning system by enhancing the companies’ R&D planning capabilities and supporting early discovery and preoccupation of new technological sources for sustainable growth.