A Revival Of Compound Semiconductor Material Innovation: Strategic Technology Spillovers In Japan’s Nonferrous Metal Industry In The 2000s | Masahiro Nakagawa & Chihiro Watanabe

Innovation in material technologies is induced by the co-evolution with technologies in other industries. This paper empirically analyzes the dynamism in material innovation in Japan’s nonferrous metal industry in the early 2000s. A case study was made on development of GaN substrate for laser application. GaN substrate is a key material for large capacity storage devices like Blu-ray system. However, it had not been developed for a long time, until Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.(SEI), one of the leading firms in Japan’s nonferrous metal industry, released in 2003. R&D on GaN substrate was undertaken with a help of joint researches with electronics device firms. In this paper, an empirical analysis focuses on patent applications filed by SEI, demonstrates that an inter-technology spillover (technology spillovers between different types of technologies) induces intra-technology spillovers (technology spillovers within the same type of technology) after a joint research, that a co-evolutionary structure of external and internal technologies is implanted into a firm, and that those technologies can be integrated in the firm. Thus, co-evolution of technologies can continuously co-evolve even after joint researches closed, changing its style from inter-technology to intra-technology spillovers.