A Study of Co-Opetition Strategy from the Patent Analysis Perspective: The Case of Manufacturers in the Stent Market

Technology innovation is one of important driving force to companies´ market shares and the development of market structure. The information of technology innovation and its evolutional path can be explored by patent analysis. Therefore, for those firms which need large investment and highly business performance, such as interventional cardiology medical device ones, integrating patent information with business strategy is the critical issue. In terms of the technological trajectories of stent technology, the dominant design is started from percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) through bare metal stent (BMS) to drug-eluting stent (DES). Those technologies are high path dependence with one another. The competition of stent manufactures is getting intensive because of global increasing needs. From resource-based view, adopting co-opetition strategy is the essential way for the firms to keep sustainable competitive advantage. In the last decade, patent is a major tool of co-opetition strategy. This study applies patent data in USPTO during 1984 to 2005 and constructs patent indicators by patent information to verify the process of technology evolution. On these grounds, we can understand the relative technological position and technological strength of those major manufactures in this industry and also inspect their changes on position and business scope to examine the relationship between each firm´s technology strategy and business strategy