Exploring the technological position and role of vehicle navigation companies by using patent citation network

Autonomous driving is the future trend when it comes to the age of 5G at the end of 21st century, and vehicle navigation is the indispensable key technology. The companies with car navigation software and hardware business are facing fierce competition. Business operators must know the company's position and role in the industry, in order to adopt strategies to respond. In this study, two indicators are investigated using the social network analysis technics such as technological redundancy and network centrality in patent citation network (PCN). It is understood that technological redundancy is determined by technology knowledge status (TKS) as well as technology knowledge reliability (TKR). There are also four types of social network centrality: degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality. In this study, an analysis of the technical position and role of individual companies in the industry will be presented by using the two indicators and the primary components. Moreover, technological redundancy is used to study the technical position and role of a company's unitary patent capability in the industry. This will reinforce the company's understanding, and then take strategies. By using this model, the study can effectively identify the technical position and role of the company and its unitary patent capability. Furthermore, the study also shows that based on this model, there is a total of three companies where positions and roles are as leading status in the vehicle navigation industry, i.e. Tomtom map company, Alpine and Asin AW two electronic companies. In addition, companies with unique technologies, such as Sirius Xm Radio, etc. can use their role and position to conduct merger and acquisition, collaboration, and alliance strategies.