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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Joachim Henkel |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I describe and analyze the phenomenon of informal development collaboration between firms in the field of embedded Linux, a type of open source software. To explain the observed phenomenon of voluntary revealing, I develop a duopoly model of quality competition. The central assumptions are that firms require two complementary technologies as inputs, and differ with respect to the relative importance they attach to these technologies. The main results are, first, that a regime with compulsory revealing can lead not only to higher profits, but also to higher product qualities than a proprietary regime. Second, when the decision to reveal is endogenized equilibria arise with voluntary revealing by both players. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; development collaboration; open source software; embedded Linyx |
| JEL: | L11 L15 L86 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-25&r=ipr |
| By: | Christine MacLeod; Alessandro Nuvolari |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of recent research on the role of patent systems in the early phases of industrialization. Perhaps surprisingly, no consensus has been reached yet as to whether the emergence of modern patent systems exerted a favourable impact on inventive activities. However, the recent literature has shed light on a number of fundamental factors which affect the links between inventive activities and the patent system. The concluding section of the paper outlines some "history lessons" for the current debate on the role of Intellectual Property Rights in economic development. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-28&r=ipr |
| By: | Bronwyn H. Hall (University of California at Berkeley, University of Maastricht, NBER, and IFS London.); Grid Thoma (University of Camerino and CESPRI Bocconi University, Milano, Italy.); Salvatore Torrisi (Bologna University and CESPRI Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the private value of patents and R&D. We analyze an unbalanced sample of firms from five EU countries - France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK in the period 1985-2005. We explore the relationship between firm’s stock market value and patents, accounting for the ‘quality’ of EPO patents. We find that Tobin’s q is positively and significantly associated with R&D and patent stocks. In contrast to results for the U.S., forward citations do not add information beyond that in patents. However, the composite quality indicator based on backward citations, forward citations and the number of technical fields covered by the patent is informative for value. Software patents account for a rising share of total patents in the EPO. Moreover, some scholars of innovation and intellectual property rights argue that software and business methods patents on average are of poor quality and that these patents are applied for merely to build portfolios rather than for protection of real inventions. We therefore tested for the impact of software patents on the market value of the firm and did not find any significant effect, in contrast to results for the United States. However, in Europe, such patents are highly concentrated, with 90 per cent of the software patents in our sample held by just 15 of the firms. |
| Keywords: | Market Valuation, Intangible Assets, Patents, Software. |
| JEL: | D24 O31 O34 L86 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp186&r=ipr |
| By: | Alex Coad (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I], LEM - Laboratory of Economics and Management - [Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies]); Rekha Rao (LEM - Laboratory of Economics and Management - [Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies]) |
| Abstract: | How do financial markets respond to firms' efforts at innovation ? To answer this question, we measure innovation by creating a synthetic indicator based on a firm's recent history of R&D expenditure and patent applications. We focus on four 2-digit «complex technology» manufacturing sectors that have been hand-picked according to their high propensities to innovate. Whilst standard regression techniques find a positive relationship between innovation and growth, quantile regression analysis adds a new dimension to the literature. We identify those «superstar» firms with the highest stock market valuations and show that these firms owe a lot of their success to their previous efforts at innovation. However, there are also other firms whose attempts to innovate are virtually ignored by financial markets. Our results emphasize the fundamental uncertainty of R&D. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, market value, quantile regression, patents, Tobin's q. |
| Date: | 2006–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00119062_v1&r=ipr |
| By: | Jinyoung Kim; Sangjoon John Lee; Gerald Marschke |
| Abstract: | We describe the construction of a panel data set from the U.S. patent data that contains measures of inventors' life-cycle R&D productivity--patents and patent citations. We match the data set to information on the U.S. pharmaceutical and semiconductor firms for whom they work. In this paper we use these data to examine the role of research personnel as a pathway for the diffusion of ideas from foreign countries to U.S. innovators. In particular, we find in recent years an increase in the extent that U.S. innovating firms collaborate with or employ researchers with foreign experience. This increase appears to work primarily through an increase in U.S. firms' employment of foreign-residing researchers; the fraction of research-active U.S. residents with foreign research experience appears to be falling, suggesting that U.S. pharmaceutical and semiconductor firms are increasingly locating operations in foreign countries to employ such researchers, as opposed to such researchers immigrating to the U.S. to work. In addition, we investigate which U.S. firms conducting R&D build upon innovations originating abroad. We find that employing or collaborating with researchers who have research experience abroad seems to facilitate the use of output of non-U.S. R&D. We also find that in the semiconductor industry smaller and older firms, and in the pharmaceutical industry, younger firms are more likely to access foreign R&D output. |
| JEL: | J62 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12692&r=ipr |
| By: | Rachel Levy; Paul Muller |
| Abstract: | Although acknowledged as central in the economic literature, the issue of intra academic collaboration has been, insofar, relatively overlooked. This paper fills this gap by stressing the importance of communities in academic research. By analysing the publication behavior of researchers from a large European scientific university, we argue that in certain cases, the community level constitutes a relevant level for analysing the collaborative nature of scientific investigation. Indeed, the reality of research collaborations doesn’t always fit the institutional division of academic work provided by laboratories. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Science, Knowledge Intensive Communities, Academic Collaborations, Social Network Analysis. |
| JEL: | L31 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-15&r=ipr |
| By: | Lucia Piscitello; Larissa Pabbiosi |
| Abstract: | The paper addresses reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) from foreign subsidiary to parent company. Specifically, it aims at investigating to what extent the effectiveness of such a transfer is influenced by: (i) the organizational mechanisms employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) the subsidiary’s role, its autonomy, and its relationships with the local context. The empirical analysis considers 162 transfers of best practices possessed by foreign subsidiaries and transferred back to their Italian parent companies. Results confirm that the impact of RKT on the parent company’s innovativeness is greater when: (i) person-based mechanisms are employed for transferring knowledge; (ii) subsidiaries are competence-creating; and (iii) knowledge developed by subsidiaries benefits from local external linkages. |
| Keywords: | External linkages; organizational mechanisms; parent company’s innovativeness; reverse knowledge transfer; subsidiary’s characteristics |
| JEL: | F23 O30 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-22&r=ipr |
| By: | Chia-Lin CHANG; Stéphane ROBIN |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of R&D and technology imports on firm performance in Taiwan’s manufacturing industry. Using a panel of 27,754 firms observed from 1992 to 1995, we estimate Translog production functions in twenty 2-digit industries. We implement four estimations procedures: fixed-effect regression, random-effect GLS, Hausman-Taylor estimator, and Stochastic Frontier Estimation. Our most reliable estimates, obtained with fixed effect and Hausman-Taylor models, show that knowledge inputs have a significant impact on firm sales in a small number of industries, and suggest that R&D and technology imports are more likely to be complements rather than substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing Industries; Newly Industrialized Countries; Technology Imports. |
| JEL: | L25 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-33&r=ipr |
| By: | Rachel Griffith; Elena Huergo; Jacques Mairesse; Bettina Peters |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the role innovation plays in productivity across the four European countries France, Germany, Spain and the UK using firm-level data from the internationally harmonized Community Innovation Surveys (CIS3). Despite a considerable number of national firm-level studies analysing this relationship, cross-country comparisons using micro data are still rare. We apply a structural model that describes the link between R&D expenditure, innovation output and productivity (CDM model). Our econometric results suggest that overall the systems driving innovation and productivity are remarkably similar across these four countries, although we also find interesting differences, particularly in the variation in productivity that is associated with more or less innovative activities. |
| JEL: | L1 L60 O31 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12722&r=ipr |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Patrick Llerena; Mauro Sylos Labin |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses, first, the properties of scientific and technological knowledge and the institutions supporting its generation and its economic applications. The evidence continues to support the broad interpretation which we call the ”Stanford-Yale-Sussex” synthesis. Second, such patterns bear important implications with respect to the so-called ”European Paradox”, i.e. the conjecture that EU countries play a leading global role in terms of top-level scientific output, but lag behind in the ability of converting this strength into wealth-generating innovations. Some descriptive evidence shows that, contrary to the ”paradox” conjecture, European weaknesses reside both in its system of scientific research and in a relatively weak industry. The final part of the work suggests a few normative implications: much less emphasis should be put on various types of ”networking” and much more on policy measures aimed to both strengthen ”frontier” research and strengthen European corporate actors. |
| Keywords: | Open Science, European Paradox, Science and Technology Policy. |
| JEL: | D80 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2005-11&r=ipr |