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This study aims to contribute to the comprehension of managerial implications in all the new convergences fields: bioinformation technology (BIT), nanoinformation technology (NIT), nanobiotechnology (NBT) and bioinformation–nanotechnology (BINT). The phenomenon of convergence that significantly impacted economies and societies in the information technology era has continued to be combined with new technologies such as nanotechnology and biotechnology. Many countries have tried to seize the initiative to strengthen the future competitiveness, and it become increasingly important for roles of companies to expand applications of the new convergence.

From a company-based perspective, the study quantifies leading companies’ degree of influence in each convergence field.

However, the result shows that companies’ influences are not mature enough to transfer the initiatives from both the NBT and BINT convergence fields. In addition, this study presents a perceivable framework for companies/institutions by identifying which technological fields the companies/institutions are influential in and what degrees of technological impact are shaped among them. As a result, this allows companies/institutions to recognize their environments squarely.

This study applied the replacement process that can reinforce the investigation of the extent to which a firm has a significant ability to influence others directly and indirectly. From the methodology perspective, such replacement can intensely display the structure and the extent of competition among firms. Therefore, the results provide an explicit information to understand the overall business situation.

Research paper

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.

Organizations are consistently seeking innovative strategies and novel pathways to enhance business processes and create differentiation. The global business ecosystem is changing and there is growing demand for multi-modal digital technologies, big data consolidation and data analytics to harness a cost-competitive agile system. Technological convergence and integration of digital systems is one of the preferred methodologies that facilitates new and effective workflows and revives business processes. The progressive interlinking of digital technologies with business operations leads to the convergence and blending of management disciplines, devices and applications. The growing inconsistencies in managerial understanding regarding the benefits of convergence prompts a comprehensive examination of digital convergence pathways, identifying the impacts on converging entities and business objectives. The State bank of India (SBI) mega-merger case study was selected to investigate the pragmatic framework of digital convergence and to understand the impacts on interlinked entities such as: business operations, strategic management, project team that support value creation and competitive differentiation. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the phenomena of techno-fusion of emerging technologies creating new opportunities, business models and unique strategies for global banking and financial service organizations.

This study applies the qualitative, inductive research method using critical reflection of before and after the implementation of convergence and digital integration strategies. The SBI case study employs this research strategy based on the premise that banks must stay agile and highly responsive to the changing environment to enhance its value proposition and competitive differentiation objectives. The study methodology incorporates cooperative inquiry and multiple levels of analysis using data collection techniques of exhaustive review of archives, informal interviews, questionnaires and observations to identify the synergistic process improvement pathway. The study is grounded on the concept that the convergence of diverse business pathways involves innovative and interlinked project, strategic and information technology (IT) workflows that results in open innovative systems.

The studies identify that organizational innovation and creative solutions are a result of ecosystem turbulence, environmental force diversity, competitive pressure and the need for differentiation. Organizations that harness the power of digital fusion and convergence of management, systems and data generate a competitive advantage. The technological convergence strategy pulls multiple business and technology processes (project, strategic, IT, Cloud, AI and business process management) at the organizational, divisional or functional level generating new opportunities and threats, new business models and unique growth strategies for global banking and financial services organizations. Organizations that fully integrate techno-fusion of business and digital strategies produce synergistic effects and enhance adaptability, innovation and resiliency in the face of competitive challenges.

Additional areas that can be explored further as an extension of this study are listed below: identifying factors to improve the speed of convergence; the current results are limited to large size organizations where formal management and technology functions are distinctive. Similar studies on smaller organizations are warranted.

This study focuses on the evolving field of technology innovation, which is increasingly being intertwined with business operations. Innovative digital technology is enabling the convergence of the disciplines of management, digital devices and applications. This facilitates the creation of a pragmatic framework that supports convergence of business operations, strategic management and digital fusion which leads to value creation and competitive differentiation. The techno-fusion of emerging technologies and digital strategies generates new opportunities and threats, new business models and unique growth strategies for organizations.

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on technology convergence within economies of the European Union which is usable for determining the economic growth policy aimed at sustainable long‐run economic growth and the convergence of the development between EU‐member states.

Two different empirical procedures are applied by estimating the technology convergence within the European Union on Eurostat data set. The first is framework developed by Dowrick and Nguyen. The second one is the authors' original contribution to the methodology which is based on the frontier production functions.

Significant technology convergence is recognized between 15 old EU‐member states and eight new‐member states. However, the technology convergence has obviously not accelerated the convergence of gross domestic product per labor unit between exposed groups of economies. Technical inefficiency is recognized as the main source that impedes a spill‐over effect of technology convergence. Following this it is established that in the future more effort should be directed into elimination of technical inefficiency.

Presented findings can be used to arrange the economic policy measures aimed at accelerating technology development in case of European Union.

This paper aims to explore the digital economy in the fields of the most promising new technologies: information and communication technologies, biotechnology and nanotechnology. It highlights the convergence of nano-, bio-, info- and cognitive (NBIC) technologies by developing a model for the accurate evaluation of different types of options in the development process of convergent technologies.

The empirical research is based on theoretical analysis and case studies. The authors conducted six in-depth interviews. The study covered different research projects led by centres of excellence, competence centres and institutions that support the transfer of innovations in the economic and business environment.

The research findings prove that there is a convergence of NBIC technologies that can be observed and modelled. The created evolutionary model of NBIC convergence, also based on the theory of real options, allows a proper evaluation of the entire convergence process.

For enterprises and scientific research institutions, the NBIC model could represent the starting point for developing further concepts of investment evaluation. The model also considers the indicators of the innovation system, which, in addition to the marketing area, include regulatory challenges of companies (competition, copyrights, patents, taxation, etc.).

This paper enhances the understanding of new technologies in a digital economy. The purpose of this study is to clarify the principal factors for the effective observation and measurement of the convergence phenomenon. It also offers suggestions for improvement of the research and innovation system in the new economy.

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.

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.

This study seeks to survey the current convergence of broadcasting and telecommunication, examine the policy questions that arise in Korea and present a review of current regulation in this field.

From a technical perspective, the convergence between telecommunications and broadcasting is emerging as both industries move towards digital standards. Yet, from a policy‐making perspective, convergence seems premature and may not be desirable. This study focuses in particular on the digital media broadcasting (DMB) service, which is currently being developed in Korea.

The paper suggests perspectives on forthcoming satellite DMB service developments, and the implications of this emerging technological breakthrough. The study indicates that current broadcasting‐based regulatory frameworks may tend to deter technological convergence and thus delay service introduction in the market.

The paper concludes with a new regulatory model with more consideration of service providers and users.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of how virtual-social-physical (VSP) convergence can affect different types of project manufacturing. In particular, VSP convergence that involves combining the read-write functionality of Web 2.0 and related social media together with digital tools for virtual design and for physical manufacturing.

Literature review and interviews with experts in technologies covering VSP convergence: digital data capture, photogrammetry, generative computation, Web 2.0 and social media, digitally driven manufacturing.

VSP convergence can enable the replacement of slow and expensive traditional project manufacturing practices with much faster and less expensive digitally driven technologies.

There are new opportunities for expansion of some types of project manufacturing. Notably, there are opportunities in non-industrial developing countries because VSP convergence reduces reliance on industrial infrastructure for the manufacturing of goods. By contrast, opportunities may be limited for expansion of established project manufacturing companies with exclusive brands.

The originality is that VSP convergence is related to different types of project manufacturing. Based on VSP convergence, traditional types and new types of project manufacturing are categorized together for the first time. The value of this paper is that it is explained how VSP convergence can address barriers to expansion of different types of project manufacturing.