Service-oriented Technology Roadmap (SoTRM) using patent map for R&D strategy of service industry

As a consequence of the service economy, R&D of the service industry has become more essential nowadays. Therefore, technology roadmaps are required for selection and concentration of services and related technologies. However, now there are problems and challenging issues as follows. First, there is no objective and systematic method or analysis toot to evaluate emerging technologies for services. Second, current technology roadmaps do not provide technology's priority oriented to the service side. Therefore, we propose a patent map and a Service-oriented Technology Roadmap using the patent map, i.e. SoTRM. Our patent map is a three-dimensional visualization method and analysis tool based on keywords, which contributes to evaluating emerging technologies for services. It does not only overcome the subjectivity of experts, but it also discovers technologies missed out by experts initially. And SoTRM is a technology roadmap customized for the service industry. Based on four layers of patents, keywords, technologies, and services, the layer of service-oriented technologies provides the order of technologies in a service-oriented aspect. It also gives guidelines to assign roles in R&D to public and private sectors. As a result, we provide an objective and systematic framework required to form a technology roadmap oriented to services for R&D strategy of the service industry. Eventually, it helps decision makers from public and private sectors to select and concentrate on the first things among services and the related technologies in R&D of the service industry, and thereby to find the direction of distributing investment funds into technologies for services. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.