Knowledge Structuring Tools for Decision Support Service: An Overview of Citation-Based Approach

Abstract

In today's increasingly global and knowledge-based economy, competitiveness and growth depend on the ability to keep pace with the seeds of innovation in science and swiftly develop technological applications. Planners or managers of scientific and technological research must grasp a broader research coverage, and make decisions on effective investment in promising and emerging technologies especially under circumstances of limited resources. Since the traditional expert-based approach is time-consuming and subjective, it is expected to be supplemented by a computer-based approach, including text, web and link mining, clustering, link prediction and visualization. We developed a computer-based approach to comprehend science, technology, knowledge, and market structures as well as detect research trends and fronts. This chapter introduces its central method together with examples of its application. There are many commonalities between this sort of approach and the technique which is used intensively in web business. Bringing such a method, which is rapidly developing in the world of web business, to the area of technology management makes it possible to provide companies intending to commercialize advanced technology and the government supporting them with a more effective decision support service. In the service innovation field, where business design changes rapidly and transdisciplinarity is required, this method is considered especially useful.