人工胰臟廠商技術競合的探討

A Study on the Co-opetition of Technology among Artificial Pancreas Firms

楊祺賢(Chi-Hsien Yang)

指導教授 ： 鄭秀玲

國立臺灣大學/社會科學院/經濟學研究所/碩士(2021年)

https://doi.org/10.6342/NTU202100146

摘要

本文聚焦於美國數間生產人工胰臟相關醫療器材廠商之間的競合行為。我們探討在此醫材市場中，多角化大廠及專業化之中小廠商間會有何種不同的產品發展方式或者是合作方式。此外我們還利用其專利資料分析後進專業小廠商追趕領先大廠商的腳步是否會在專利技術領域上一致等，來討論後進廠商與領先廠商競爭並進入市場的機會與方式。本文發現人工胰臟廠商之間合作與競爭的軌跡可從幾個角度來分析，包括其專利分類及專利關鍵字或關鍵技術能看出後進廠商聯盟可以與領先廠商的專利技術領域相仿，後進廠商學習的對象與先進廠商也會有許多相同之處。此外領先廠商與後進廠商之間的技術差距關係也持續保持著。但即便如此，後進廠商也針對自己專精的部分不斷精進，並在某些領先廠商所不易兼顧的領域闖出一番成績。吾人認為人工胰臟是對這一代對糖尿病患者非常有益的醫療器材，宜藉由同業廠商間的競爭和合作，來促使其更便宜且好用。

關鍵字

人工胰臟 ； 創新 ； 廠商合作與競爭 ； 多角化大廠 ； 專業化中小企業

並列摘要

The major focus of this study is on the co-competition behavior among several enterprises related to artificial pancreas (AP) in the United States. We compare the difference of patenting performance, particularly on the patent classes, between large diversified AP firm and a group of small specialized AP firms who are latecomers and cooperate with each other in producing AP. In addition, we analyze latecomers’ learning process through investigating their patent citation behaviors.

The track of cooperation and competition in the artificial pancreas market is discovered and can be seen from different points of view in this study. The International Patent Classification (IPC) and technical keywords reveal that the alliance of newcomers could achieve patent similarity to leading enterprises. Besides, new-comers learn from leading enterprises with similar patterns. The gap between leaders and fast-followers remain the same. Nevertheless, newcomers continuously pursue the advancement in R D, and obtain quite successful results in some specific fields which the leading firm may not be able to catch-up. Since the artificial pancreas is one of the most updated medical devices for diabetes patients, how to promote the diffusion rate of AP with cheaper price is very important.

並列關鍵字

artificial pancreas ； innovation ； cooperation and competition among firms ； large diversified firms ； small specialized firms

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