Applying K-means clustering and technology map in Asia Pacific-semiconductors industry analysis

In recent years, the semiconductor market has gradually moved away from advanced countries and relocated to the Asia-Pacific region. Since the 1980s Taiwan has also been developing its own semiconductor industry, and, after twenty years of efforts, has become one of the world´s major exporters of semiconductor products. Therefore, in order to position Taiwan in relation to other countries in terms of competitive advantage as defined by technology and industrial development, we need to better understand developmental trends of semiconductor technology of major competing countries in the Asia-Pacific region. By doing this we can further provide our government with additional strategic development proposals. In this study, we used a combination of patents, data mining methods (multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, and K-means clustering) to explore competing technological and strategic group relationships within the semiconductor industry in the Asia-Pacific region. We assessed the relative technological advantages of various organizations and proposed additional technology development strategy recommendations to Taiwan´s semiconductor industry.