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Patent portfolio analysis can be a useful approach to understand the characteristics of an industry and competitors in terms of their standard-setting activities. Despite its potential, however, little attention has been given to portfolio analysis, especially for essential patents. Therefore, this study aims to develop five patent portfolio maps that can be used to analyze essential patent strategies from various perspectives: 1) concentration, 2) activities, 3) diversity, 4) quality-breakthrough, and 5) quality-impact. Then, a case study is conducted on LTE-A technologies in the telecommunications sector, where technology standards are essential to establish technology strategies.

In recent years, the volume of mobile traffic has increased at an unprecedented rate and the mobile paradigm has changed. These dynamics have driven the next-generation telecommunications technologies, and the existing fourth-generation technology is reaching maturity. The pre-acquisition of promising future technologies enables firms to achieve and sustain their business growth; thus, numerous organizations in the telecommunications sector have made a huge amount of effort to develop fifth-generation (5G) technologies. Although understanding these emerging and promising 5G technologies is essential, they still remain poorly investigated. To fill this research gap, we first define the characteristics of promising technologies in the telecommunications sector, then develop a framework for identifying them based on patents. Specifically, we design three patent indices for deriving the core patents published by leading organizations in the sector. We then apply bibliographic coupling and text mining to the patents and identify their major innovation trends. We identify 21 technology fields as promising areas emphasized by the leading organizations. Theoretically, this study is one of the few attempts to examine various approaches to identify promising technologies and to suggest the most appropriate one considering the research purpose as well as the characteristics of telecommunications sector. In practice, this study can provide information about patent activities of key incumbent actors and thus offer some insights into recent technological developments towards 5G. We developed a framework for identifying promising telecommunications technologies.Patents recently published by leading organizations in the sector were collected.The RFM concept, bibliometric coupling and text mining were used for patent analysis.Four major R&D trends and 21 core technologies were found towards 5G.The findings show key patenting trends of incumbent organizations in the sector.

In an environment where customers can hardly describe new technology-based services (TBSs) of the future and technological engineers are unlikely to understand how a new technology can work for new services, a guideline to generate ideas for TBS can be utilized to achieve successful service innovation. Thus, this paper aims to develop an ideation framework for TBS. Two methods – the technology tree and the function analysis systems technique – are employed to identify core utilities expected from a new technology. Then a new method, the service encounter value matrix, which is based on morphology analysis and is used for generating potential service ideas, is suggested. Finally, these ideas are evaluated, and only those that are of a high priority according to customers’ expectations of future society are selected. In this study, the framework is applied to telecommunication technology, which is timely and useful for designing future services.

Given the increasing significance of technology-push strategy and market-driven strategy, an integrated approach to technology roadmapping that considers both strategies in a systemic way is needed. To satisfy such need, this study suggests a novel roadmapping approach, named opportunity-driven roadmapping. It integrates the identification of technological opportunities in a retrospective manner and the proposition of future values in a prospective manner. During roadmapping, three canvases (value proposition canvas, technology solution canvas, and roadmap canvas) are used and three analyses (scenario analysis, patent analysis, and relationship analysis) are employed to support decision-makings for each canvas. Since mobile services industry has numerous business opportunities due to the emergence of 5 G telecommunications technologies, the suggested approach is applied to mobile services industry to verify its usability.

Endocannabinoids can affect multiple cellular targets, such as cannabinoid (CB) receptors, transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily V, member 1 (TRPV1) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ). The stimuli to induce adipocyte differentiation in hBM-MSCs increase the gene transcription of the CB1 receptor, TRPV1 and PPARγ. In this study, the effects of three endocannabinoids, N-arachidonoyl ethanolamine (AEA), N-arachidonoyl dopamine (NADA) and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), on adipogenesis in hBM-MSCs were evaluated. The adipocyte differentiation was promoted by AEA whereas inhibited by NADA. No change was observed by the treatment of non-cytotoxic concentrations of 2-AG. The difference between AEA and NADA in the regulation of adipogenesis is associated with their effects on PPARγ transactivation. AEA can directly activate PPARγ. The effect of AEA on PPARγ in hBM-MSCs may prevail over that on the CB1 receptor mediated signal transduction, giving rise to the AEA-induced promotion of adipogenesis. In contrast, NADA had no effect on the PPARγ activity in the PPARγ transactivation assay. The inhibitory effect of NADA on adipogenesis in hBM-MSCs was reversed not by capsazepine, a TRPV1 antagonist, but by rimonabant, a CB1 antagonist/inverse agonist. Rimonabant by itself promoted adipogenesis in hBM-MSCs, which may be interpreted as the result of the inverse agonism of the CB1 receptor. This result suggests that the constantly active CB1 receptor may contribute to suppress the adipocyte differentiation of hBM-MSCs. Therefore, the selective CB1 agonists that are unable to affect cellular PPARγ activity inhibit adipogenesis in hBM-MSCs.

Because the increasing complexity of technology embedded in telecommunication services enables services to be provided via various mediums, the vital requisite for forecasting the diffusion of such services is to simultaneously capture different diffusion phenomena for different devices. This paper proposes a new diffusion model for a dual-type device-based service called the hybrid Bass–Markov model. The proposed model is targeted at the service environment where one type of device is new to the market, and the other type has existing competing services. The Bass model is selected to model service diffusion through the former type of device, while the Markov transition model is employed to capture the diffusion through the latter type of device. The hybrid Bass–Markov model is then developed to produce the aggregate demand. The case of the wireless broadband (WiBro) service in Korea is presented to illustrate the proposed model with a policy sensitivity analysis. This research is expected to be the basis of multi-type device-based service forecasting and, ultimately, will help researchers conduct demand forecasting of services offered by several different devices.

Mobile operators in saturated markets increasingly favor mobile network sharing (MNS) over facility-based competition. Previous research examining MNS primarily focused on its positive effects, while the negative effects were largely overlooked. This study proposes a decision-making model using an analytic hierarchy process technique to evaluate decision-making criteria among various types of MNS policies. The decision-making model was applied to Wireless Broadband services in Korea to determine the relative importance of both positive and negative evaluation criteria and preference among multiple types of MNS policies. Positive evaluation criteria (that is, efficiency) were far greater in importance than negative evaluation criteria (that is, competition harm). The preference for adopting MNS among five alternative approaches was also revealed. The study findings offer immediate policy insights in Korea and provide a decision-making framework for policy makers in other countries to utilize.

Carousel systems become increasingly popular in industries on account of their efficiency and relatively low cost. All the research papers dealing with travel time models of carousel system assumed average uniform velocity for the carousel body movement, disregarding the acceleration/deceleration rate. Consequently, the optimal design and operating policies proposed in the literature are far from optimum, from the practical point of view. With a continuous approximation to the discrete rack face, we develop travel time models by considering the speed profiles of the carousel body movement. Under the randomized assignment policy, the expected travel times are found for a single and dual command cycle. The accuracy of the proposed models is verified by comparison with the results obtained directly from discrete racks.

In this study, a stable red pigment was prepared from Lithospermum erythrorhizon via supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. The optimal extraction conditions were 400 bar and 60 degrees C. The patch tests indicated that up to 10% of the red pigment was acceptable from a skin irritation standpoint. According to the results of the CIE LAB chromaticity test, the color difference was acceptable when compared to commercial synthetic red pigments. The light-illuminated color stability test indicated that the pigment was more stable than the red pigment extracted with ethanol. The higher stability was also demonstrated in the DPPH antioxidant activity test. The supercritical red pigment harbored elevated amounts of shikonin and derivatives, and appears to be usable as a stable red pigment for cosmetic color products.