Measuring Technology Commercialization Using Corporate Disclosures and Observing Temporal Patterns

This study proposes a framework for measuring the commercialization of individual technologies using corporate disclosures. Based on the observation that corporate disclosures consistently provide information on both business and R&D activities, we define two indices, the Business Use Index and the Attention Index, derived from the number of companies that mention specific technologies in the description of business and R&D activities sections of Japanese securities reports. Using a ten-year dataset, we extract technology terms and compute these indices across time. We then apply time-series clustering to identify typical commercialization patterns. The results reveal diverse trajectories corresponding to technological evolution stages, ranging from growth, as seen in cloud computing, to decline in hydrogen stations, and maturity and renewed attention in solar cells. This method provides a scalable and interpretable approach to identify the business status of technologies using publicly available corporate data.