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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to present a bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review of industry convergence and value innovation to understand the current research status; second, to provide a coherent theoretical research framework for future research.

This study adopts a two-step analysis approach by combining bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review to explore the research topic of industry convergence and value innovation. Besides, two bibliometric tools, HistCite and VOSviewer, were applied to this study.

This study found that Stefanie Bröring and Fredrik Hacklin are the top two most influential authors among all authors in the sample publications. Technological Forecasting and Social Change is one of the top-ranking journal that often publishes this topic of articles. Germany and the University of Munster are the most influential country and institutions, respectively. Besides, five core research themes were identified based on keywords co-occurrence map, theoretical lenses, factors promoting industry convergence, indicators of industry convergence, the impact of industry convergence and emerging research directions. Based on the above analysis, this paper constructed a theoretical research framework of industry convergence and value innovation.

This paper only draw data from one database – Web of Science – which cannot provide broad coverage of the research topic. Besides, the bibliometric method of this paper is based on high local citation score and high-frequency words, articles in the skirting subjects’ area may not be analyzed.

With the rapid development of technology, such as nanotechnology, radio - frequency identification (RFID), etc., the iterative upgrading of products also comes. As a result, the boundary between industries is gradually blurred, and the phenomenon of industry convergence appears. Therefore, managerial decision-makers are facing challenges of how to respond to the convergence phenomena. From the firm level, firms are facing the problem of value innovation of the existing product, new product development and core competence improvement. Industries are facing the problem of transformation and upgrading. This paper provides certain theoretical insights for both firms and industries to guide the practice accordingly.

This paper is the first to use a bibliometric method to examine the topic of industry convergence and value innovation. In addition, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of this topic and provides a comprehensive theoretical research framework for future study.

The convergence of industries exposes the involved firms to various challenges. In such a setting, a firm's response time becomes key to its future success. Hence, different approaches to anticipating convergence have been developed in the recent past. So far, especially IPC co-classification patent analyses have been successfully applied in different industry settings to anticipate convergence on a broader industry/technology level. Here, the aim is to develop a concept to anticipate convergence even in small samples, simultaneously providing more detailed information on its origin and direction.

The authors assigned 326 US-patents on phytosterols to four different technological fields and measured the semantic similarity of the patents from the different technological fields. Finally, they compared these results to those of an IPC co-classification analysis of the same patent sample.

An increasing semantic similarity of food and pharmaceutical patents and personal care and pharmaceutical patents over time could be regarded as an indicator of convergence. The IPC co-classification analyses proved to be unsuitable for finding evidence for convergence here.

Semantic analyses provide the opportunity to analyze convergence processes in greater detail, even if only limited data are available. However, IPC co-classification analyses are still relevant in analyzing large amounts of data. The appropriateness of the semantic similarity approach requires verification, e.g. by applying it to other convergence settings.

Fusion of new technologies and convergence has led to the emergence of new industries. This paper aims to present experiences of the concept of convergence from a patent citation analysis viewpoint. The main objective of the paper is to develop a tool for anticipating the emerging new industry segments.

The patent analysis methods have been used to get an idea of the stage of new industry segment in the intersection of the paper and electronics industries. The authors distinguish self‐citations from external citations, and further divide citations into two groups: within the industry and beyond the industry. Backward citations are used to evaluate the spill‐overs between industries and forward citations are used to evaluate the significance of technology‐based industry transformation.

The recognized trends of the trajectory changes and growing overlaps of technological fields show indications for possible convergence between industries. Differentiating between external and self‐citations within and beyond industry citations helps to provide more comprehensive prospects of a future technology competitive environment.

This study evaluated technology development in converging environments. It would be a scientifically significant contribution if the novel patent analysis methods could be used effectively for creating understanding in advance about the technology development and industry convergences.

The presented patent citation methodology provides new insights into the analysis of industry evolution, technological innovations and business development related to converging industries and technologies.

This paper seeks to shed some light on value‐creation in new product development (NPD) projects within the context of industry convergence and to explore alternative types of projects characterised by different buyer‐seller relationships.

There has been much research on value‐creation in general, but limited emphasis on value‐creation in NPD projects addressing new industry segments emerging from industry convergence (for example, the segment of nuctraceuticals and functional foods (NFF) products that is positioned between the food and the pharmaceutical industries). Based on a multi‐case study approach, this paper pursues an exploratory research strategy and investigates 54 NPD projects drawn from a Quebec (Canada) NFF foods cluster.

In the context of convergence a new value chain is emerging between two formerly separated sectors. Value‐creation networks spread across industries and reinforce trends of convergence. Firms face competence gaps in NPD and seek to close these by choosing alternative forms of collaboration. Different types of NPD projects involve alternative forms of buyer‐seller relationships and their approach of value‐creation is analysed.

A typology of different approaches to NPD in converging value chains is presented along with type‐specific implications for value‐creation for the required buyer‐seller relationship.

This paper provides a unique insight into value‐creation in NPD in the emerging NFF sector, in particular, and for converging industries, in general.

Uses a specially constructed data set to present new evidence on the convergence performance of Ireland among European Union (EU) countries at the aggregate, sectoral and industry levels for the period 1960 to 1990. Overall, aggregate convergence occurred among the EU 12 over the period. Ireland did exhibit catch‐up on the EU average. However, Ireland’s convergence performance becomes distinctly less favourable if adjustments are made for the increase in net factor outflows during the late 1980s. This is especially the case when gross national product is used instead of gross domestic product (GDP) to measure Irish living standards as this results in a divergent trend emerging. For labour productivity the adjustment of Irish GDP to take account of transfer pricing by multinationals leads to the finding that labour productivity convergence performance in Irish manufacturing is substantially overstated if “official” GDP estimates are used. This translates into more muted convergence performance at the aggregate level if the adjustments are made.

Bill Gates, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, holds that the Information Highway does not exist, and that it would not be available to most US homes for at least a decade. Where one of the most knowledgeable authorities on Information Technology (IT) fears to tread, wordsmiths rush in. Don Tapscott, for one, affirms that the dominant economic sector in the Digital Economy is being created by three converging industries and that convergence is becoming the basis of all sectors. Convergence in mathematics is the progressive approach of a function to a pre‐specified value(s). If a thousand coins are tossed, the number of heads in a single toss could vary from 0 head to 1,000 heads. If the coins are not loaded, the number of heads in each toss could be high or low, but in successive tosses, the fraction of heads will approach closer and closer to 0.5 (Converge( as n, the number of tosses, tends to infinity. Tapscott provides no measures of convergence — conceptual, theoretical, empirical, or operational — without which we would not know if convergence has indeed descended upon us; what is more, we have no idea if we are/are not progressing toward the consummation of convergence upon which Tapscott's Digital Economy is predicated. Even more damaging to the Tapscott thesis of “three converging industries … becoming the basis of all sectors” is the conspicuous absence of any movement toward convergence on the part of the leading firms in the three industries. On the contrary, we find that each of them is racing on its own Divergent path of high and higher tech. Both the CEOs of IBM and Microsoft believe that high‐speed, high‐bandwidth is the future; and both swear by the Internet. But they race toward the Information Super Highway in their own separate, individual tracks. Product and service differentiation are the rule of the day; not standardization. Open architecture is a distant dream. Turning from the giant of hardware (IBM) and of software (Microsoft) to the giant of communications (AT&T), what is the story of convergence? AT&T entered the field of computers under the MFJ [Modified Final Judgment] of 1982. It beat a decisive path of retreat from convergence five years later by breaking up on January 1, 1997, into three communications and computer companies. How can the 3Cs converge? Not by their own volition. It is clear from the strategies of IBM, Microsoft, and AT&T that each of them is racing on its own path of high and higher tech. There is little evidence of convergence by default. If we want to achieve convergence by design, we have to emulate Hannibal. Facing the European Alps with his army of elephants, Hannibal said: “I will either find a way or invent one.” We will have to invent an appropriate methodology of convergence.

This paper aims to explore the evolutionary dynamics of innovation ecosystems in the food industry by adopting both open innovation and convergence approaches to derive practical policy implications to develop impactful innovation ecosystems to promote food production sustainably.

Starting from the cutting-edge case of Foodvalley in the Netherlands, the study adopts a backcasting approach to reach a future vision of food ecosystems from a sustainable food production perspective. The authors set the backcasting analysis in four steps: (1) description of the present and trends analysis, (2) selection of trustworthy criteria and goals, (3) development of future images and (4) analysis of how to reach the images.

The trends analysis has identified three existing innovation fields – protein shift, circular agrifood and food and health – and two strategic directions – convergence and localness decrease. The study reports how a long-term commitment may lead the valley toward a best future scenario.

The study suggests that policymakers and stakeholders can promote innovation strategies in sustainable food production ecosystems by encouraging collaboration between different sectors, reducing regulatory barriers, attracting innovative actors, and investing in education and training programs. To achieve measurable environmental and social impact outcomes, policies should promote entrepreneurship and create an enabling environment that encourages innovation and risk-taking.

The originality of this paper concerns the backcasting perspective applied to the analysis of the food ecosystem. This approach facilitates the identification of a path direction for successfully managing open innovation and industry convergence toward a desirable future of sustainable food production.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the history and development of the automobile industry Furthermore the paper discusses convergence in the context of discontinuous competitive environment and possible management responses to changes.

The findings of this paper are based on the analysis of the auto industry and the changes triggered by advances in related industries and socio‐economic forces.

The rate of change in innovation is leading to the creation of new industries and the disintegration of the industry classifications due to convergence of multiple needs previously served by different industry groupings. As such, firms have to upgrade their environmental scanning systems to detect competitive forces beyond the industrial competitive boundaries.

The paper provides a comprehensive review of convergence and disruptive technologies and the resulting implications for the automobile industry.

The paper highlights the breakdown of barriers in terms of industry classification. Customer's needs could be served by other firms in hitherto distinct industry groupings.

Using the large database of patent, the purpose of this paper is to structure a technology convergence network using various patent network analysis for integrating different results according to network characteristics.

The patent co-class analysis and the patent citation analysis are applied to discover core safety fields and technology, respectively. In specific, three types of network analysis, which are centrality analysis, association rule mining analysis and brokerage network analysis, are applied to measure the individual, synergy and group intensity.

The core safety fields derived from three types of network analysis used by different nature of data algorithms are compared with each other to understand distinctive meaning of cores of patent class such as medical safety, working safety and vehicle safety, differentiating network structure. Also, to be specific, the authors find the detailed technology contained in the core patent class using patent citation network analysis.

The results provide meaningful implications to various stakeholders in organization: safety management, safety engineering and safety policy. The multiple patent network enables safety manager to identify core safety convergence fields and safety engineers to develop new safety technology. Also, in the view of technology convergence, the strategy of safety policy can be expanded to collaboration and open innovation.

This is the initial study on applying various network analysis algorithms based on patent data (class and citation) for safety management. Through comparison among network analysis techniques, the different results are identified and the collective decision making on finding core of safety technology convergence is supported. The decision maker can obtain the various perspectives of tracing technology convergence.