從技術融合與跨領域探討國家數位競爭力

Investigating Technology Convergence and Interdisciplinarity for Digital Competitiveness at Country Level

有鑒於數位技術乃是催化新經濟秩序誕生以及奠定數位競爭力之重要角色，本研究從專利技術層面切入探討國家數位競爭力，並且運用1981年至2021年之全球在美國專利商標局申請核准之專利資料，以數量化方法探討國家層級之技術融合與技術跨領域能否促進國家數位競爭力，以及技術融合與技術跨領域對於一國數位競爭力的影響。本研究結果發現，技術融合與技術跨領域及國家數位競爭力排名呈現高度相關性，尤以近五年之技術跨領域與國家數位競爭力之排名的相關性最高，尤以具備通用技術屬性之運算類別專利技術發展為技術融合與技術跨領域之主要驅動力。此外，本研究結果亦顯示擁有較多運算類別專利的國家，除了技術跨領域與技術融合的發生頻次較高以外，同時也在國家數位競爭力排名上的表現較佳。

This study explores the digital competitiveness at the technological level by the patent data in the category of computing from 1981 to 2021, to investigate whether technological convergence and interdisciplinary technology can enhance the international digital competitiveness, and the degree of influence of technological convergence and interdisciplinarity on digital competitiveness. The results of the study show that computing-related technologies are highly correlated with international digital competitiveness rankings, both in terms of their own technological innovation and the resulting technological convergence and interdisciplinarity, and the correlation between interdisciplinarity and international digital competitiveness rankings has been the highest in the past five years, indicating that computing , as a general-purpose technology, can provide impetus for technological convergence and interdisciplinarity, and that the technology convergence and interdisciplinary technology derived from it can provide impetus for international digital competitiveness rankings. It is worth mentioning that the results of the study also show that countries with more patents in computing-related technologies are usually ranked higher in the international digital competitiveness ranking, and they also have a larger scale in technology convergence and interdisciplinarity. Therefore, this study argues that although past studies have shown that digital competitiveness emphasizes the ability to adopt and explore digital technologies, the possession or development of technology innovation related to digital technologies is also a driving force for enhancing the digital competitiveness.