How industrial convergence happens: A taxonomical approach based on empirical evidences

The current innovation paradigm clearly shows that the notion of “industry” is changing. Innovation no longer occurs within single industries. This paper employs practical data on 100 successful Korean cases of industrial convergence to analyze how industrial convergence takes place. Together, these practical cases represent the essential characteristics of industry convergence. We identify the pattern of industry convergence through a clustering analysis that identifies the characteristics of each cluster. As a result, we identify four industry convergence types: technology enhancer, policy-driven environmental enhancer, service-integrated social business generator, and technology-driven new value generator.