Value Creation and Capture From Technology Innovation in the 6G Era

In the sixth generation of mobile communication networks (6G) era, in which the convergence of wireless and Internet technologies will drive the digital economy and automation across industries, the focus of innovation will shift from individual technology or products towards innovation within platforms and ecosystems. This paper provides a comprehensive categorised survey of the 6G business literature and the current state of mobile communication intellectual property value creation across the system architecture layers. The key emerging and enabling technologies of the 6G networks are positioned as applicable to areas of value creation and capture, and an outline of the proposed transformation of technology innovation by considering the 6G system architecture layers is provided. Unlike the existing 6G literature focusing on visions, use cases, KPI requirements, and KVI drivers, this study will extend the discussion to the value-creation-and-capture problem of technology innovators. The role of complementary assets, technology policy, standardisation, and intellectual property in 6G is analysed by profiting from innovation lenses. To gain the full potential and capture value from technology innovation in 6G, it is essential that regulators protect the intellectual property contributions to incentive R&D investments by the developers of open, collaborative enabling technologies. The paper further assesses the business model evolution from the 4G engineering platform to modular 5G and 6G, stemming from ecosystems and open value configurations. The results of the technology value analysis show the emerging 6G business to be an oblique hybrid of vertical and horizontal business models and characterise the future 6G networks as a general-purpose technology.