The Nature of Collaborative Patenting Activities

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2018

We consider an oligopoly setting in which firms form pairwise collaborative links in R&D with other firms. Each collaboration generates a value that depends on the identity of the firms that collaborate. First, we provide properties satisfied by pairwise equilibrium networks and efficient networks. Second, we use these properties in two types of situation (1) there are two groups of firms, and the value of a collaboration is higher when firms belong to the same group; (2) some firms have more innovative capabilities than others. These two situations provide clear insights about how firms heterogeneity affects both equilibrium and efficient networks. We also show that the most valuable collaborative links do not always appear in equilibrium, and a public policy that increases the value of the most valuable links may lead to a loss of social welfare.

British Journal of Management, 2010

In settings where patents and intellectual property provide a strong regime of appropriability, the race to be the first firm to patent a product or a process is a central feature of competition. In this context, we hypothesize that cooperative arrangements that only gain access to external knowledge contribute less to heterogeneity between firms and have a much weaker influence on patenting than alliances that transfer highly firm-specific knowledge, residing in individual and social relationships. We also hypothesize that cooperations between private firms and public organizations accelerate the rate of patenting to a higher degree than cooperations among private firms. We develop and test these ideas on the population of 839 US biotechnology firms between 1973 and 2003. We discuss the importance of our findings on the debate about the value of knowledge access versus knowledge transfer in strategic alliances.

The Annals of Regional Science, 2013

The paper at hand investigates how co-patenting over distance develops when aggregating inventive activities on a regional level. That means, the object of analysis is a link between two regions in contrast to other studies, where links between two individuals or firms are investigated. We analyse which regional characteristics influence the creation and continuation of such links. The main focus lies on different types of distance. The approach adds a dynamic view to the existing, often static literature about collaboration behaviour. The regressions are done for all patent-relevant industries in Germany. We find that several distance types decrease-as expected-the likelihood of link creation but also-not in all cases expected-of link continuation.

European Management Journal, 2011

This article studies the impact of collaboration and co-inventorship network characteristics of Canadian nanotechnology inventors on the quality of their inventions. We investigate the impact of four types of variables on patent quality, using the number of claims as a proxy for quality: (a) the presence of highly central inventors; (b) the presence of star inventors; (c) repeated collaboration; (d) international collaboration. We show that the presence of more central inventors and of stars in the research team has a positive influence on patent quality, while repeated collaboration has a negative impact. Patents owned by foreign organisations, controlling for whether assignees are firm, yields patents of higher quality.

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2020

and Technology of China. His primary research interests are management of innovation, technology and intellectual property. Feng Feng is a professor in the School of Management of the University of Science and Technology of China. His primary research interests are innovation management and technology policy. Shilei Cao is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Management of the University of Science and Technology of China. His primary research interests are technology innovation and environmental innovation.

Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 2021

Entrepreneurship is one of the main pillars of growth in any economy. Achieving a high rate of entrepreneurship in a region has become the priority objective of governments and firms. However, in many cases, new firm creation is conditioned by relations or collaboration in innovation with agents from other countries. Previous literature has analyzed the mechanisms that foster entrepreneurship. This paper attempts to shed light on the influence of international patent collaboration (IPC) on entrepreneurial activity at country level taking into account the timing of this relationship. An empirical study is proposed to verify whether IPC leads to greater entrepreneurship and to analyze the gestation period between international patenting actions and firm creation. Using the Generalized Method of Moments, the two hypotheses proposed were tested in a data panel of 30 countries for the period 2005–2017. Results show the influence of IPC in promoting entrepreneurship in the same year, but ...

2003

Recent patterns show that most research joint ventures (RJVs) are not industrywide, but take place among a subset of the companies operating in the industry. So, while some members of an industry have formed RJVs, the others have responded by forming competing RJVs. The paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the evolution of cooperation in patent races when more than two players are involved in the race, so that competing RJVs may occur. Ideed, the experimental evidence shows that competing coalitions very often emerge, and they spur the incentive to innovate. In addition, the larger the number of the players the lower the probability to collude during the race. Finally, players with an initial advantage in the race often are capable to pre-empt the rivals.

Journal of Informetrics, 2019

Collaboration networks have primarily been studied in developed economies. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of co-inventor networks in a small but thriving OECD economy in Latin America: Chile. Using a dataset for patents granted in the country between 1989 and 2018, we study a variety of statistical properties for five different co-inventor networks. We show that these networks exhibit power-law, small-world, and preferential attachment properties, all of which have been used to describe networks in more advanced economies. We also highlight some apparent differences in collaboration patterns between networks (and inventors) and we reveal the precarious nature of the network of local inventors by confirming the community structure property. Evidence for strong positive autocorrelation between highly and lowly productive inventors is presented via methods used in spatial econometrics. Our results show that the inventor system in Chile is highly fragmented, which emphasizes the need for strong government intervention in steering research funding, and for more collaboration between inventors, especially local ones.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

We seek to introduce the idea that the ability of firms in an emerging market to convert R&D resources into product innovation depends on the degree to which there is a diversification among the broad groups of shareholders who own their shares, and the concentration of ownership within these groups. These groups, which we call 'ownership types', can be broadly referred to as state, local non-state, and foreign. We integrate internalization theory and resource dependence theory to argue that the valuable and irreplaceable resources brought by each ownership type reduce the environmental uncertainty facing firms, resulting in a higher rate of new product development, as well as the more efficient conversion of R&D investment into new products, together referred to as 'innovation performance'. We extend the principal-agency theory by following a principal-principal view to analyze the tradeoffs between alignment benefit and entrenchment cost associated with ownership concentration, and to depict the relationship between ownership concentration and innovation performance as an inverted "U". We test our hypotheses using unique panel data of listed corporations in China during the years 2004 to 2006, and find significant and supportive evidences. This study offers insights to both practitioners and policy makers who are interested in enhancing the ability of improving innovation performance by organizing a good ownership structure in an emerging market.

2011

The paper targets the relationship between growth of cooperation and later growth of innovation at the regional level. Patent data for German regions and eleven subsequent years is used to identify collaborative activity as well as the innovative output in each region. The results confirm to some extend previous expectations based on the assumption of an inverted U-relationship. Depending on the regional level of cooperation there are positive and negative effects of a change in regional cooperation behaviour in the industries Radio, Television and Communication Equipment and Machinery and Equipment. No significant results are obtained for the industries Chemicals and Chemical Products as well as Medical, Precision and Optical Instruments.

Most observations of the patent behavior of firms are derived from institutional environments in which relatively strong protection can be obtained, even if patents per se are imperfect protection mechanisms. As a result, the determinants of a firm's propensity to patent in a weak appropriability regime are still unclear. This paper advances our current understanding of patent behavior by exploring the effects of manufacturing firms’ innovation partnerships, foreign ownership, and adoption of new management practices on the likelihood of patenting. Our analysis is based on the responses of firms to questions in the Brazilian Industrial Survey of Technological Innovation (Pintec). The findings presented here indicate that, despite the weaknesses of the patent system, firms engaged in innovation-oriented collaborations are more likely to patent than firms not involved in these partnerships. Additionally, the results reveal that domestic and foreign firms in a weak institutional environment are similar in their inclination to patent. Finally, the empirical exercise shows that when a patent system is characterized by high levels of formalism and low levels of safeguarding against infringements of property rights firms adopt novel management practices as substitutes for patents.

Journal of Industrial Economics, 2005

Research sharing is an important objective of many research joint ventures. When partners share R&D but do not maximize joint profits, large consortia are more profitable than small ones, and joint ventures prefer dispersed rivals. For much of the spillover space, a coalition formation game that permits limited membership predicts that at most, three joint ventures form. Research-sharing joint ventures improve welfare when spillovers are low, and banning research sharing joint ventures is beneficial for high spillovers. With imperfect research sharing and low spillovers, allowing only research sharing is the best industry-wide joint venture alternative for consumer surplus.

Journal of Econometrics, 2016

In this article, dynamic interactions among stock return, Research and Development (R&D) investment, patent applications and patent propensity of firms are studied. Patent innovation leader and follower firms are identified with respect to their quality-adjusted knowledge stock. Significant and positive dynamic spillover effects are obtained in a panel vector autoregressive model. We find positive dynamic spillover effects from patent innovation leader to followers. We show that an increasing degree of competition enhances innovation and patent applications, which helps firms appropriating part of the benefits of their R&D investments.

The aim of this paper is to observe differences between research areas when it comes to establish collaboration ties with local, national or international partners. It also intends to determine in what extent the collaboration can influence the patent transfer. A collaboration network between CSIC researchers and their external collaborators was built. Several statistical tests were used to find significant differences between research areas. A multiple regression model was also utilized in order to know what type of collaboration is more successful to transfer a patent. The results show that there are two well-defined groups. A "Bio" group with a high international collaboration pattern but less national participation; and a "Physicist" group supported by a high proportion of national partners but with few international connections. The regression analysis found that the national collaboration is the variable that most increase the patent transfer.

Dynamic interactions among stock return, Research and Development (R&D) expenses, patent applications based on R&D investment, and the propensity to patent are studied in this work for a panel of firms from the United States. The panel includes technologically similar firms, neck-to-neck, mostly from the drugs product-market sector. Firms' propensity to patent is modeled by a dynamic latent-factor patent count data model that separates patented and non patented R&D. Patent innovation leader and follower firms are identified according to their knowledge stock. Significant and positive dynamic spillover effects are obtained among patent application leaders and followers. We observe that neck-to-neck firms in patent innovation activity produce an inverted-U relationship between market competition and innovation. Furthermore, firms' propensity to patent is positively correlated with market competition and there is a positive feedback in both directions. Increasing the degree of competition in the market enhances innovation and patent applications, in order to help firms to appropriate part of the benefits of their R&D investments. On the other hand, firms by increasing their patent applications defend themselves from competitors, trying to improve their market share. However, due to the diffusion of knowledge through patent applications, knowledge spills over to competitors therefore, the degree of competition and innovation increases in the market.