R&D Collaboration Partner Search in Deep Tech Firms: A Feasibility Study of the Digital Therapeutics Sector in Korea

This feasibility study was conducted to explore the research question, “What are the processes by which deep tech companies in the digital therapeutics field seek more efficient external R&D collaboration partners?”. This study is based on the theoretical premise that companies pursue collaborative innovation to complement internal resources (resource-based theory, RBV) and minimize transaction costs (transaction cost theory, TCT). Furthermore, this study addressed the limitations of previous studies, which focused on the “outcomes” of external R&D collaborations and lacked a systematic methodology for the “exploration” phase. Therefore, this study proposed an analytical framework utilizing NTIS analysis, Patent analysis, and Tech. Mining Analysis, and validated this framework to verify the validity of the proposed methodology. The analysis revealed that each source presented different evaluation criteria for innovation of activities, innovation of excellence and firm's business environments. This suggests that the final R&D collaboration partner may vary depending on the selected source. These results have important implications and suggest that identifying R&D collaboration partners should not rely solely on a single source. An integrated and strategic approach is needed, integrating and selecting information based on a company's external R&D collaboration goals and management environment.