Mapping the Research Trends on Technological Innovation in East Asia: A Bibliometric Analysis Using the Scopus Database for Future Research Direction (1982-2022)

Technological innovation is accelerating advancements in artificial intelligence, 5G networks and biotechnology, driven by significant R&D investment and strong government support in emerging Asian countries. This study uses bibliometric analysis to conduct a critical review of technological innovation research in East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan), revealing its development, trends and significant issues and research tendencies. We use a sample of 3925 Scopus-indexed documents from 1982 to 2022 to explore a wide bibliometric analysis and network-clusters analysis of emerging research, as well as to examine future research directions using multiple softwares such as R-Studio, VOSviewer, Biblioshiny and BibTex. The study reveals that technological innovation in East Asia has increased rapidly since 2012, with the most influential and contributing authors being Lee N., Trung T., Lin B., Khan Z. and Murshed M. (37% of 20 most cited authors) and China and South Korea being the most contributing countries. Additionally, the Beijing Institute of Technology (China), Sungkyunkwan University (South Korea), The University of Kitakyushu (Japan) and China Medical University (Taiwan) were found to be the top institutions in regarding research productivity. While the keywords "technological development" and "environmental regulation" have been growing steadily since 2012, "Industrial technology", technology innovation capacity," "information technology" and "technology diffusion" have gained popularity over the past decade. However, we find a paucity of research in this field in Taiwan. Our results suggest that research in these areas is growing, with new approaches and directions emerging, but there are significant gaps, particularly in innovation management, technology policy and product development. This study has significant policy implications for technological innovation management critical for national innovation systems, as well as a collaborative opportunity for academia to understand future trends.