The rising pace of technological change in information and communications technology (ICT) has provoked technological convergence by providing a new mode of diversification. This paper investigates the nature of ICT-based converging technologies by examining comparative empirical evidence on converging versus nonconverging technologies in relation to the following issues: patent application trends, concentration across technologies, the concentration of patenting activity across firms, R&D efforts, and a technology impact index. For this study, a new operational definition of ICT-based converging technology is derived, and a massive quantity of patents, up to around 600,000, is analyzed. This study follows the International Patent Classification as well as the modified European Commission's industry classification system for the classification of technologies and industries, respectively.
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