Evaluating the competitiveness of enterprise’s technology based on LDA topic model

With the advent of the knowledge economy, technology has become the foundation of advancement for many enterprises. To maintain a lasting competitive edge, enterprises must accurately determine the competitiveness of particular technologies. However, emerging innovations are becoming more and more complex, and interdisciplinary trends complicate matters even further. In the competitiveness evaluation based on patent, traditional patent classifications are both loose and time-sensitive. In this paper, we constructed the evaluation model of enterprise’s technology competitiveness based on the technological topics generated by a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model. LDA topic model is able to classify technologies into narrower categories and can, therefore, provide rich information on the competitive landscape of a field. Two indexes are used to determine the technological competitiveness of an enterprise in the model–a specialisation index and a diversification index. At the same time, we explore the distribution of enterprises with different technological topics through the relative share, the technology’s appeal, and the competitive advantage that technology might give an enterprise. The empirical study on intelligent connected vehicles validates the model, and the results provide theoretical support for developing R&D strategies and/or making investment decisions.