Examining technological competition between BMW and Hyundai in the Korean car market

ABSTRACT

The Korean car market has increased in size. BMW and Hyundai are the top-ranked imported and domestic vehicle brands in Korea, respectively. Thus, it is important to understand these companies and the Korean car market, because technology is most significant in the vehicle industry. In this paper, we compare BMW with Hyundai from the technological perspective. Our research is focused on an analysis of the technological competition between BMW and Hyundai based on their developed technologies. We use all BMW and Hyundai patents from worldwide patent databases to analyse the two companies’ technologies. In addition, we apply statistical methods and machine learning algorithms to the patent analysis. In our conclusion, we show the technological differences and competition between BMW and Hyundai, and find their relative strengths and weaknesses.

KEYWORDS:

• Technological competition
• technology forecasting
• patent analysis
• BMW
• Hyundai
• Korean car market

Notes on contributors

Sunghae Jun is professor in the Department of Statistics, Cheongju University, Chungbuk, Korea. He received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Department of Statistics, Inha University, Incheon, Korea, in 1993, 1996, and 2001, respectively. He also received Ph.D. degree from the Department of Computer Science, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea, in 2007, and Ph.D. from Information Management Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea, in 2013. He was visiting scholar in the Department of Statistics, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma, USA, during 2009–2010. His current research interests include big data learning and technology forecasting.

Sangsung Park received the Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering from Korea University in 2006. He is now professor of Graduate School of Management of Technology at Korea University. He teaches strategic management of electronic business, computer system, and strategic application of patent information. His research interests are management of technology, patent analysis, data mining, technology forecasting.