CORPORATE ACTIVITIES IN SPEECH RECOGNITION AND NATURAL LANGUAGE: ANOTHER "NEW SCIENCE"-BASED TECHNOLOGY

Konstantinos Koumpis () and Keith Pavitt ()
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Konstantinos Koumpis: Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, 211 Portobello St. Sheffield, S14 DP, United Kingdom
Keith Pavitt: SPRU, Mantell Building, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, United Kingdom

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 1999, vol. 03, issue 03, 335-366

Abstract: We have used data on patents and publications, and from an Internet-based survey, to analyse corporate technological activities in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies. Two distinct clusters of firms exist: large firms mainly in telecommunications, desktop computing and consumer electronics; and small firms specialising in speech technologies. The small specialised firms depend heavily on nearby universities and public research institutes and, to some extent, on nearby large firms; their relations with the large firms are complementary as well as competitive. Similar patterns can be observed in other, recently emerging, "new science"-based technologies.Integration between ASR and NLP has so far been weak with the two research communities functioning more or less independently, with the former progressing more rapidly than the latter. Having built technological capabilities in ASR and NLP with a small proportion of their corporate technological resources, the large firms have two options depending on the rate of progress in these technologies (especially NLP) in the future. If it is high, substantial investments (including those in complementary technologies) could open up massive market opportunities. If it is low, modest investments will allow the exploitation of niche markets.

Keywords: Automatic speech recognition; natural language processing; patents; publications; corporate strategies; spin-off companies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919699000177

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