A Study on the Technological Competitiveness of Aircraft Infra Industries by using Patents

특허분석을 통한 항공기반산업의 기술경쟁력에 관한 연구

This paper considers the technological competitiveness of aircraft infra industries that are bases of the aircraft industry development in Korea. We performed focus group interviews to aircraft industry specialists and classified the aircraft infra industries by eight fields: metallurgical assembly, general machinery, precision instruments, materials & parts, communication appliances, computer, semi-conductor/ electronic component, electronics. Through the United States patents analysis for the G7 countries and Korea during 1995-2006, we identified the technological specificities and competences of each country. RTA(Revealed Technology Advantage) index and CII(Current Impact Index) are used to examine the technological specificity and technological competence respectively. Finally, we introduced TCI(Technological Competitiveness Index) which could reflect quantitative level as well as qualitative level of patents for each aircraft infra industry. The results show that Korea has occupied the technological competitiveness in the semi-conductor and electronic component industry out of eight aircraft infra industries, and achieved a competitive edge in communication appliance industry in the mid 2000s.