Delineating development trends of nanotechnology in the semiconductor industry: Focusing on the relationship between science and technology by employing structural topic model

• Published in: Technology in society Vol. 74; p. 102326
• Main Authors: Kang, Inje, Yang, Jiseong, Lee, Wonjae, Seo, Eun-Yeong, Lee, Duk Hee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Development opportunities; Nanotechnology; S&T interrelationships; Science-oriented nanotechnology; Structural topic model; Technology-oriented nanotechnology; Technology-oriented nanotechnology; Science-oriented nanotechnology; Structural topic model; Development opportunities; Nanotechnology; S&T interrelationships
• ISSN: 0160-791X; 1879-3274
• DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102326

The bibliometrics research on nanotechnology highlights close interrelationships between scientific and technological activities (S&T) in the field of nanotechnology. Notwithstanding abundant empirical evidence on the mutual relations between S&T, the dynamics of the relationship from a contextual perspective have gained relatively little attention. Accordingly, our understanding of how science- and technology-oriented nanotechnology identifies development opportunities from each other is still at a nascent stage. To address this gap, by focusing on nanotechnology in the semiconductor industry, we use structural topic model to empirically explore the dynamic interrelationships between science- and technology-oriented nanotechnology. We empirically delineate the dynamic development trends in the context of the interrelationships between S&T and demonstrate how development opportunities are identified from each other. These findings show a new window of opportunities for how state-of-the-art models for semantic analysis can be used in the literature on S&T interrelationships. •Potential development opportunities can be demonstrated by illuminating the contextual interrelationship between science and technology (S&T).•How S&T identifies development opportunities and how these interrelationships diverge are empirically delineated.•Some research subjects show consistent S&T interrelationships, whereas others fail to maintain such relationships.•This study proposes how the structural topic model (STM) can be used to empirically examine the diverging S&T interrelationship.