Editorial Board

Humankind today is faced with problems like the global warming phenomenon caused by increased temperatures due to the increase in the energy remaining in the atmosphere due to the rapid CO2 emissions from the excessive use of fossil fuels, and the environmental problems caused by the destruction of the ozone layer. To solve these problems, there is a growing interest in renewable energy worldwide.^1,2)

Among the different types of renewable energy, solar energy has a low energy density, thereby requiring a large area to obtain a certain amount of energy, and wind and hydro power can be obtained only in regions where wind and water are abundant, creating regional limitations. Hydrogen energy, however, can be easily converted into electric energy using the fuel cell technology, giving it the advantages of transportation or storage capability by converting it into gas or liquid, and of the production capability of an unlimited amount of energy from water or organic matter as an energy medium. In addition, while fossil energy can make a country an energy superpower depending on the amount of its underground fossil energy reserves, hydrogen energy, which can become a new source of energy for making human industrial activities convenient, can make any country an energy power depending on the country’s efforts to develop a hydrogen energy technology. For these reasons, major developed countries are investing efforts and resources to conquer the fast-growing hydrogen energy markets ahead of other countries. In particular, there has been a growing interest of late in “hydrogen fuel cells” that can accommodate the existing fossil-fuel-based energy systems without a great impact.²⁾

Fuel cell electric vehicles(FECVs) use electric energy generated by reacting hydrogen with the oxygen in the air as fuel, so they are more environment-friendly than the internalcombustion-engine cars, have higher energy conversion efficiency than the diesel engine, and can travel 300 ~ 600 km with one-time charging. They are also differentiated from Electric vehicles(EVs) in that they generate electricity by themselves as the next-generation cars.³⁾

For a new product to be commercialized, however, it should meet the conditions of price, quality, and purchase. FCEVs have difficulty being commercialized due to relatively high prices and problems with stability and infrastructure.⁴⁾ This study presented a technology analysis and development strategy through an analysis of the patents of companies related to FCEV parts in South Korea and Japan.²²⁾ Towards this end, based on the patents of companies with a history of mass production of FCEVs(Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, etc.), an overall technology classification system of FCEVs was established, and various patent analysis indicators were used to analyze the competitiveness of individual technologies and to present relevant parts companies. The findings of this study are expected to help relevant South Korean companies establish roadmaps and technology development strategies for developing FCEVs.

Fig. 1 
Global auto market restructuring outlook (IEA: International Energy Agency)

As the automobile industry is increasingly adopting ICT and as the self-driving technology is spreading, the automobile industry’s pyramid structure, in which automakers monopolize the leadership, is shifting to a diamond or network type, in which the leadership is distributed to many companies.⁵⁾ The existing value chain of the automotive industry is also shifting from the pyramid structure with the OEMs at the top to the diamond structure, which is expected to shift to the hub-and-spoke structure in the future.⁶⁾

Eco-friendly cars play a pivotal role in the paradigm shift that is currently occurring in the automotive industry, and their importance is increasing as the concerns about environmental issues rise. In the current Fourth Industrial Revolution era, the automotive industry’s paradigm shift is headed towards two trends: self-driving vehicle technologies geared towards safety and convenience, and eco-friendly cars focused on emission reduction. Eco-friendly cars are accelerating the expansion of technology development and commercialization, and are becoming a core technology of the automobile industry. FCEVs require not only car body and parts technologies like the internal combustion engine technology but also a full-cycle linkage of various elements for operation, such as hydrogen production, storage, and transport. To secure total eco-friendliness for FCEVs, it is necessary to advance the upgrading of related technologies, including the reforming process for hydrogen production, from a full-cycle perspective. In addition, it is necessary to continuously implement measures for enhancing market acceptance, to utilize external resources through open innovation aimed at reducing the cost of innovation, and to increase the possibility of success to maximize the creation of added value. According to Chesbrough, companies are increasingly expanding their open innovation because there has been a change in the knowledge landscape surrounding companies. Throughout the 20th century, a series of changes in the knowledge environment have made open innovation essential, which can be summarized into three changes: (1) the end of the monopoly of knowledge by large corporations; (2) increased workforce liquidity and development of venture capital; and (3) increased technology development costs and shortened product cycles. If the process of research/development/ commercialization is completely done within a single company, this method is called “closed innovation.” Meanwhile, open innovation can facilitate the exchange of knowledge between the inside and outside of a company at each stage, so that external technologies can be introduced into the company, and conversely, the technology inside the company can be commercialized through other external channels.

Fig. 2 
Changes in the automotive industry structure. (Kakiuchi(2014), AT Kearney(2016))

The purpose of the network analysis method that was used in this study is to find and interpret the patterns of the networks,¹⁸⁾ and as such, three indices - degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality - were used.

Order centrality is a statistical indicator of whether a company in the network is directly connected to other companies. The degree to which firm v of n firms is connected to other firms is calculated based on deg (v), and it can be expressed as CD (v), as shown in equation (1).

Degree centrality considers statistics only by connection, so it plays an analysis role only within a local scope. In this study, the direction of In-Degree and Out-Degree was not considered. Only the cooperative relationship was confirmed.

Closeness centrality is a statistical index indicating centrality considering not only direct connection but also indirect connection. It shows how closely a company is located in the virtual space with other companies, and it can be expressed as Cc (Pk), as shown in equation (2), when there are firms Pi and Pk among n firms. In equation (2), d(Pi, Pk) is the shortest distance between nodes i and k, and n is the total number of firms.

If the virtual distance between all the nodes connected to the other nodes is calculated, it will determine the global centrality of the relevant network. In other words, if the closeness centrality is increased, it becomes easier to access and secure the influence, status, and information power in the network.

Betweenness centrality is a statistical index that indicates whether the node plays the role of a broker well.

In equation (3), δ_st is the shortest path count between nodes s and t, and δ_st(υ) is the number of paths passing through node v among the shortest paths. Betweenness centrality expresses how much a node contributes to the interconnection of the nodes, and it is deemed that a large betweenness centrality can greatly influence the communication flow in the network.

In this study, through an analysis of the patents of Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda, which have a history of mass production of FCEVs, an overall technology tree of FCEVs was established, and competitiveness analysis data by detailed technology and related parts company were derived through various patent analysis indices. While it cannot be claimed that patent indicators directly represent a company's R&D performance, many previous studies showed that the key indicators of patents as a measure of R&D activity can represent a certain R&D activity level, as evidenced in quantitative empirical studies on the relationships between R&D activities and the market changes at the levels of patents and corporations.^7-9)

The following hypotheses were set after the analysis of the previous studies revealed that the patent activity and patent quality performance were boosted as a result of measuring them by sales growth and sales per person, and that holders of good-quality patents are more successful than holders of low-quality patents10, and after the analysis of the hardware specifications of the three target companies in this study.

H1. It is assumed that Japanese companies have a higherlevel FCEV technology.

Exerting efforts to analyze and evaluate the potential and growth possibility of a few or individual patents, researches are currently moving to use massive biological data in adopting more precise analysis methodologies. This can offer a more reliable macroscopic view for examining the internal/external linkage structure of technology.¹¹⁾ The network analysis used herein is a suitable methodology for defining the complicated interconnection structure of certain entities or technologies. In addition, the resulting indices can be used to identify the influence and connection between networks. In particular, the recently developed network analysis methodology is being used in studies designed to identify networks.^12,13) From the perspective of technology and knowledge, it offers a significant implication to corporations’ knowledge linkage, their relative position, and the changes therein.

H2. It is assumed that Japanese companies have a higher level of cooperation in the development of FCEVs.