Competitive Positioning of R&D Strategies at Productive Frontier: The Case study on Cooperative Relationship between EV and Battery Makers

Abstract

This paper focuses on the R&D direction and the business strategy of EV firms and battery makers with reference to Porter’s productive frontier. M. E. Porter (1996) claimed that the productivity frontier represents the maximum value that the organization can deliver at any a given cost, using technologies, skills and purchased inputs. He argued that strategic decisions are ones that are aimed at differentiating an organization from its competitors in a sustainable way in the future. We use the patent information of EV firms (Toyota, Tesla, Volkswagen) and battery makers (Panasonic, CATL, LG Chem) as the cases. We examine our propositions by social network analysis and text mining. The analysis in this paper includes: 1) trying to distinguish between differentiation and cost leadership strategy from R&D direction, and visualizing productivity frontier, 2) making discussing on the inter-organizational relation of EV firms and battery makers. In this paper, we clarify those patterns of cooperation EV firms and battery makers.