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on Innovation |
| By: | Michael Noel; Mark Schankerman |
| Abstract: | Strategic patenting is widely believed to raise the costs of innovating,especially in industries characterised by cumulative innovation. This paperstudies the effects of strategic patenting on R&D, patenting and marketvalue in the computer software industry. We focus on two key aspects:patent portfolio size which affects bargaining power in patent disputes, andthe fragmentation of patent rights (.patent thickets.) which increases thetransaction costs of enforcement. We develop a model that incorporates botheffects, together with R&D spillovers. Using panel data for the period 1980-99, we find evidence that both strategic patenting and R&D spilloversstrongly affect innovation and market value of software firms. |
| Keywords: | patents, anti-commons, patent thickets, R&D spillovers, marketvalue |
| JEL: | L43 L86 O31 O32 O33 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieip:43&r=ino |
| By: | Julien Pénin; Jean Pierre Wack |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a unified conceptual framework to analyse the multiple role and consequences of patents in the case of biotechnology research tools. We argue that the knowledge/information and independent/complementary nature of research tools define heterogeneous frameworks in which the patent system plays different roles. In particular, using the analogy with the free-libre open source movement in software, we show that patents can promote open innovation by ensuring the freedom of some pieces of knowledge. A strong conclusion of the paper is therefore that, against common belief, an adequate use of the patent system may contribute to preserving freedom of access to upstream research tools within a framework that we call free-libre biotechnology. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights, sequential innovation, open source, life science, collective invention. |
| JEL: | D2 O3 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2007-24&r=ino |
| By: | Eleftherios Sapsalis (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the industrial and entrepreneurial value of 334 patent families applied for by six major Belgian universities. It identifies the value determinants underlying the patent documents and highlights the positive and significant impact of collaboration and tacit scientific knowledge of the inventors’ team on the probability to get licensed. It also shows that there are technological differences between patents licensed to existing companies and the ones licensed to spin-offs. It suggests that existing companies are more likely to license technologies to be cited by academia when spin-offs exploit academic patents that are cited by the industry. These results advocate that existing companies and start-ups are two different valorisation patterns to commercialise different types of academic technologies. The paper stresses also the importance of collaboration between public and corporate research teams in order to get patent licensed. It pleads for a better management and valorisation sheme of patents co-applied for by many academic assignees and draws attention on the need to focus on academic researchers with a high scientific profile in terms of publications in order to crystallize their tacit knowledge into valuable patents. |
| Keywords: | Patent value, patent indicators, knowledge sources, license, spin-off. |
| JEL: | L24 M13 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:07-018&r=ino |
| By: | Eleftherios Sapsalis (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and Columbia University, US.) |
| Abstract: | In the large and complex debate related to the creation, diffusion and protection of academic research results, this paper intends to understand the characteristics of academics involved in the knowledge creation as measured by publications and patents. Moreover, it aims to produce some piece of evidence that it is possible to manage patenting activity without jeopardizing publishing. Analysing the publishing and patenting activity of the 326 faculty members of the School of Engineering at Columbia University between 1970 and 2005, we find out that more than the Bayh-Dole Act, it is the implementation of the IP policy at Columbia University that has created an incentive to patent at the engineering school. We also find out that the probability and propensity to patent is influenced by the scientific production of a researcher, his contacts with industry but also his mindset towards patenting. Analysing the scientific productivity of the researchers, we confirm that heterogeneity in the career might deter the productivity of a researcher. We find that scientific collaboration with industry and technological collaboration on application-oriented projects with public or industrial partners had a positive impact on the probability to be among the best scientists. Finally our results suggest that patenting activity undertaken by Columbia University does not divert academics from publishing and relay the recent findings of the literature. |
| Keywords: | Academia, Patent, Publication |
| JEL: | O10 O33 O34 O38 L38 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:07-017&r=ino |
| By: | Francesco Lissoni (University of Brescia, Brescia and Cespri - Bocconi University, Milano, Italy.); Patrick Llerena (BETA - Université L.Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.); Maureen McKelvey (RIDE-IMIT - Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden.); Bulat Sanditov (Cespri - Bocconi University, Milano, Italy and MERIT - Maastricht University, The Netherlands.) |
| Abstract: | The paper provides summary statistics from the KEINS database on academic patenting in France, Italy, and Sweden. It shows that academic scientists in those countries have signed many more patents than previously estimated. This re?evaluation of academic patenting comes by considering all patents signed by academic scientists active in 2004, both those assigned to universities and the many more held by business companies, governmental organizations, and public laboratories. Specific institutional features of the university and research systems in the three countries contribute to explain these ownership patterns, which are remarkably different from those observed in the US. In the light of these new data, European universities’ contribution to domestic patenting appears not to be much less intense than that of their US counterparts. |
| Keywords: | Technology transfer, University patents, Academic inventors. |
| JEL: | I23 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp202&r=ino |
| By: | Andréanne Léger |
| Abstract: | This article contributes to the literature on innovation and development by identifying the determinants of innovation, and the role of intellectual property rights, in industrialized and developing countries. Controlling for sample selection, I find that, in general, the level of intellectual property protection and a country's technological capital stock are positively related to research and development investments, while openness to trade has a negative effect. I also find the determinants of innovation to be different for industrialized and developing countries. This is supported by endogeneity tests showing that intellectual property protection is endogenous in industrialized countries, but not in developing countries. However, in both sub-samples, research and development investments Granger-cause intellectual property protection levels, whereas surprisingly, intellectual property protection does not Granger-cause research and development investments. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; intellectual property rights; developing countries; panel data; selection model |
| JEL: | O30 O34 C23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp696&r=ino |
| By: | Nicoletta Corrocher (CESPRI - Bocconi University, Milan, Italy and NFH - University of Tromso, Tromso, Norway.); Lorenzo Zirulia (CESPRI - Bocconi University, Milan and University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at analyzing the characteristics and the determinants of innovation in the mobile communication service industry, by emphasising in particular the role of demand. In a Shumpeterian spirit, we argue that competition in this sector crucially depends upon innovation, and that, given the specific characteristics of the industry, firms' innovative strategies are strongly affected by demand. Our main point is that in a context of uncertainty, demand affects firms' innovative strategies in two ways: first, by providing information on users' behaviour and by increasing the capability of market segmentation; second, by providing invcentives to innovate. This argument is supported by an empirical analysis carried out on the basis of an original dataset including all the tariff plans offered in the history of the Italian market up to 2005. We find that both firms' installed base of customers and market saturation play a role in shaping firms' innovative activities, in terms of number and type of innovations. |
| Keywords: | Service Innovation, Demand Characteristics, Mobile Communications. |
| JEL: | O31 L96 D43 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp199&r=ino |
| By: | Antoine Bureth; Moritz Mueller; Julien Pénin; Sandrine Wolff |
| Abstract: | Au-delà de ses fonctions en termes de protection et de financement de l’innovation, le brevet est aussi un instrument de médiation et un support d’interactions. Dans le cas du développement des nouveaux vaccins issus du génie génétique, nous montrons qu’il est une composante essentielle de la production d’innovation. Un vaccin génique se construit en effet à partir de trois modules fondamentaux : l’antigène, le vecteur, et l’adjuvant. L’avènement des techniques du génie génétique favorise un développement autonome de ces composants, aussi bien sur les plans technique qu'organisationnel ou cognitif. Les brevets deviennent alors des instruments stratégiques d’information et de négociation dans l’élaboration de l’architecture du produit. Ils jouent un rôle d'interface entre des organisations, des trajectoires technologiques et des champs de savoir hétérogènes. |
| Keywords: | Droit de Propriété Intellectuelle, vaccins, génomique, modularité, innovation collective. |
| JEL: | I11 L24 L65 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2007-22&r=ino |
| By: | Sharon Belenzon; Mark Schankerman |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of incentive pay, local development objectives and governmentconstraints on university licensing performance. We develop and test a simple contractingmodel of technology licensing offices, using new survey information together with paneldata on U.S. universities for 1995-99. We find that private universities are much morelikely to adopt incentive pay than public ones, but ownership does not affect licensingperformance conditional on the use of incentive pay. Adopting incentive pay is associatedwith about 30-40 percent more income per license. Universities with strong localdevelopment objectives generate about 30 percent less income per license, but are morelikely to license to local (in-state) startup companies. Stronger government constraints are'costly' in terms of foregone license income and startup activity. These results are robustto controls for observed and unobserved heterogeneity.Keywords: incentives, |
| Keywords: | incentives, |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 F23 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieip:44&r=ino |
| By: | Aykut Lenger (Department of Economics, Ege University) |
| Abstract: | (This paper is in Turkish) This paper investigates the role of state played in the regional innovation systems through state universities and legal and institutional setup in Turkey. After a discussion of the lack of regional perspective in policy-making until very recently, the paper examines two salient laws that have ramifications for regional economics. The technology development regions/centers, university-industry joint research centers and state universities on account of public research undertaken in and their role in the mentioned centers/regions seem to be key elements in regional innovation systems. The econometric analysis forwarded that each of these elements has a positive and statistically significant effect on the patenting performance of regions. |
| JEL: | R1 O18 O31 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ege:wpaper:0704&r=ino |
| By: | Gachino, Geoffrey (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper undertakes a critical review of existing spillover analyses and proposes a unique analytical framework for examining technological spillovers in a manufacturing industry setting. The proposed framework overlaps three different literature strands; cluster and network dynamics, technological innovations; and spillover literature. It enables determination of the extent to which multinational presence in a host country stimulates spillover occurrence to local firms as well as their nature. Using this framework, the kind and the channels through which spillovers occur most can be equally determined - this is particularly relevant for policy intervention in a technically backward country. Lastly, it allows determination of factors and conditions under which spillovers from multinationals occur. |
| Keywords: | International Economic Relations, Technology Transfer, Learning, Network Dynamics, Capability Building, Technological Change, Multinational Enterprises |
| JEL: | O33 F23 D83 D85 O31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2007017&r=ino |
| By: | Anne Branciard (LEST - Laboratoire d'économie et de sociologie du travail - [CNRS : UMR6123] - [Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille I][Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II]); Eric Verdier |
| Abstract: | L'enjeu principal de cette contribution tient dans sa tentative de rendre compte du travail de médiation qui<br />articule des répertoires d'interprétation du monde la recherche et de la technologie à la formulation des<br />politiques publiques et, en particulier, des réformes récentes. Autrement dit, il s'agit d'analyser le passage d'une posture analytique à des préconisations normatives. Dans cette perspective, les rapports d'experts tiennent une place cruciale. Les politiques scientifiques et les réformes qu'elles ont connues en France constituent un domaine d'élection pour une “approche cognitive” de l'action publique. En effet, ainsi que ce texte s'attachera à le montrer, l'analyse de ces réformes et, en arrière-plan, de la trajectoire du dispositif français de recherche et de technologie, est inséparable de l'appropriation des analyses produites par la sociologie et l'économie de l'innovation et des connaissances. Elles sont médiatisées par des rapports d'expertise commandités par les pouvoirs publics nationaux et/ou élaborées par les organisations internationales, au premier rang d'entre elles, l'OCDE.<br />Comme dans d'autres domaines de l'action publique, l'élaboration des récentes réformes est souvent assimilée à une promotion des régulations marchandes. Certes, c'est bien la construction des années 50-70, qualifiée de ‘colbertiste' ou de ‘régulation administrée', qui est ainsi en jeu ; mais on peut avancer qu'une conception connexionniste de la science et de la technologie, mariant les réseaux et l'interaction tournées vers l'élaboration de projets, tend à prédominer. Dans les faits, c'est une pluralité de compromis et d'agencements entre différents<br />principes de justification qui semble prévaloir. Il en résulte une forte indétermination des trajectoires sociétales. |
| Keywords: | Politique de recherche; Politique d'innovation; Action publique; R&D; Relations science-industrie; Economie de la science; Référentiel; Etat ; Triple Hélice; Mode 2; Analyse sociétale; Réseaux |
| Date: | 2007–06–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00153797_v1&r=ino |
| By: | Grid Thoma (University of Camerino, Italy and Cespri, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | Several scholars have tried to focus on growth accounting of specific examples of General Purpose Technologies (GPTs). But, what are the factors that might make a General Purpose Technology succeed or fail once the invention has been "triggered"? This paper is a preliminary answer to this question and attempts to study GPTs from an ex-ante perspective trying to understand what is the behaviour and performance of the producer firms and what the factors are that can favour or hamper their diffusion in the application sectors. The paper follows a historical perspective on a control technology, introduced in the last few decades by a Silicon Valley start-up company. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Organization, Technological Change. |
| JEL: | L13 L24 L8 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp195&r=ino |
| By: | Sau Lino (University of Turin) |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200702&r=ino |
| By: | Alberto Onetti (Department of Economics, University of Insubria, Italy); Hal Steger (VP Marketing, Funambol Inc. (Redwood City, CA, USA)) |
| Abstract: | From a commercial open source company's point of view, open source is ideally the ultimate in “grass roots" marketing where people learn by word-of-mouth about the project and where they volunteer their time and effort, resulting in a vibrant community that benefits the company in many ways. This enables an open source company to enjoy major advantages that do not normally accrue to proprietary software companies e.g. they do not need to spend resources on traditional marketing activities and furthermore, having this community support can help ensure the longevity of the project and company. While this ideal may apply to a handful of open source projects, where they achieve a large critical mass of a community which lends itself to a natural form of monetization, for the vast majority of open source companies, it is not the case of “build it and they will come”. Instead, most open source companies need to understand who comprises their community so they can formulate a viable business model. In particular, they need to understand that communities are comprised of heterogeneous types of people, each of which have their own interests, motivation, needs and ability to be monetized. Open source companies need to identify the subgroups in their community, decide which ones to deliberately focus on, and choose the best way to leverage them. This is indispensable for determining how best to monetize the interest in their software, ideally without ruffling the community spirit that differentiates their software from proprietary offerings. And this is where “old fashioned” marketing can help. This means understanding your user base and what makes them tick, determining their needs, and formulating products and services that people are willing to pay for. The sooner an open source company understands that it needs to practice traditional marketing techniques such as segmentation and target marketing, the faster they will hit on the business model formula that enables their company to succeed. These techniques need to be adapted for the open source world, which requires the blending of traditional marketing techniques and community relations. The risk of treating one's community in an undifferentiated manner and applying a generic, formulaic business model is that a company will fail to generate significant revenue as well as alienate a community that could abandon them. As a community is perhaps the most distinctive asset of an open source company, losing its community is tantamount to death. If the community is not properly nurtured and leveraged, an open source company's potential will not be realized. This paper aims at describing, through case study research, a generic approach for how commercial open source companies can segment their community to aid in their formulation of a business model and marketing plans to reach their potential. It is for anyone who works in an open source company or project who is trying to determine a viable business model. The paper is structured in three parts: the first part outlines the research question and methodology. The second part proposes a way that an open source company can segment its community. The final part analyzes the Funambol experience, describing how the company segmented its community and created open source programs to nurture and leverage it. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ins:quaeco:qf0706&r=ino |
| By: | A. Lasagni; F. Sforzi |
| Abstract: | Is the rapid growth of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) activities shaping new local specialization and industrial concentration? Does the analysis of local economic conditions help to explain the formation of “places” specialized in ICT? We use 2001 Census data by Local Labour Systems (LLS) to investigate the characteristics of ICT specialization in Italy. Our investigation is based on a cross-sectional regression model using data for 686 LLS in which the dependent variable is an index of ICT local employment concentration. The measure of concentration we adopted is the location quotient (LQ) index. The LLS specialized in ICT activities in Italy account for 7.3% of total LLS. They are distributed all over the country, although those with highest LQ values are mainly in North-west and Central-south Italy. Our regression analysis provides the following results. The general econometric specification, i.e. that applied to all LLS, supports a positive and significant relationship between LLS specialized in some manufacturing industries (machinery, equipment and instruments; petrochemicals, rubber and plastic products; transport equipment; and paper, publishing and printing) or business services and relatively high localization of ICT employment. Besides, the model indicates that for LLS characterized by manufacturing SMEs there is a low probability of attaining a greater-than-the-national-average ICT employment specialization. These econometric results are in line with the general opinion that product specialization of Italian industries (the so-called “Made in Italy”) and SMEs are less likely to be involved in ICT diffusion to business. Nevertheless, this pattern of results does not justify the interpretation that the industrial districts (where SMEs employment has the largest share) are at the origin of inadequate ICT diffusion to business in Italy. In fact, when the analysis is focused on industrial districts the results are slightly different. In particular, the variable SMEs does not produce a significant coefficient, while textile and clothing industries show a positive association with ICT, even though significant only at 10% level. What is the main policy implication of these empirical findings? National government’s policy makers should become aware that industrial districts are an appropriate instrument to promote the development of the ICT sector, although so far they have been neglected. " |
| Keywords: | Information and Communication Technologies, Local Labour Systems, geographical concentration, local specialization |
| JEL: | L60 O14 R12 O52 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:par:dipeco:2007-ep03&r=ino |
| By: | Satyajit Chatterjee; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | The authors propose a theory of firm dynamics in which workers have ideas for new projects that can be sold in a market to existing firms or implemented in new firms: spin-offs. Workers have private information about the quality of their ideas. Because of an adverse selection problem, workers can sell their ideas to existing firms only at a price that is not contingent on their information. The authors show that the option to spin off in the future is valuable so only workers with very good ideas decide to spin off and set up a new firm. Since entrepreneurs of existing firms pay a price for the ideas sold in the market that implies zero expected profits for them, firms’ project selection is independent of their size, which, under some assumptions, leads to scale-independent growth. The entry and growth process of firms in this economy leads to an invariant distribution that resembles the one in the U.S. economy. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:07-15&r=ino |
| By: | DRAMANI, LATIF; LAYE, OUMY; NDIAYE, DIAMA |
| Abstract: | Les comptes nationaux ont été, pendant longtemps, l’une des préoccupations majeures dans la production de statistiques économiques au sein de l’administration publique sénégalaise. Les travaux de la comptabilité nationale s’intéressent beaucoup à la production statistique des comptes et d’autres tableaux synthétiques comme le Tableau Economique d’Ensemble et le Tableau des Entrées Intermédiaires (TEI). Le TEI, conçu grâce à la détermination des coefficients techniques, met en exergue les interrelations entre les différentes branches d’activités. La présente étude s’inspire des travaux de Leontief [1927] sur les modèles input-output et propose une démarche synthétique permettant de calculer des coefficients techniques robustes, ainsi que leurs intervalles de confiance. Les données utilisées proviennent d’une compilation des Tableaux Entrées Sorties (TES) de 1980 à 2004. Pour assurer la robustesse des résultats, un estimateur hybride, combinaison optimale de la moyenne et de la médiane a été privilégié. Les résultats obtenus mettent en évidence, une bonne adéquation entre les intervalles estimés et les données réelles observées. Les simulations faites dans le cas d’une flambée du prix du baril en 2005, répliquent assez bien la réalité observée dans la structure économique au Sénégal. |
| Keywords: | Estimateur hybride; coefficients techniques; modèle input output |
| JEL: | E27 E2 E23 E20 |
| Date: | 2007–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3655&r=ino |
| By: | Bitros, George; Hritonenko, Natali; Yatsenko, Yuri |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes and compares two alternative policies of determining the service life and replacement demand for vintage equipment under embodied technological change. The policies are the infinite-horizon replacement and the transitory replacement ending with scrapping. The corresponding vintage capital models are formulated in the dynamic optimization framework. These two approaches lead to different estimates of the duration of replacements and the impact of technological change on the equipment service life. |
| Keywords: | vintage capital equipment; embodied technological change; service life; replacement; scrapping |
| JEL: | O33 O16 E22 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3619&r=ino |
| By: | Ertugrul Deliktas (Department of Economics, Ege University); Mehmet Candemir (Odemis Vocational Studies, Ege University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the productivity performance of Turkish State Agricultural Enterprises using Data Envelopment Analysis approach. Regarding this, the paper mainly focuses on production efficiency or technical efficiency and total factor productivity growth of the enterprises over the 1999-2003 period. In the second stage of the study, we use a regression analysis to estimate the affects of potential factors influencing the production efficiency of the enterprises. The empirical results indicate that during this period, the agricultural enterprises experienced technical regress, on average, while the technical efficiency improved 1.5 percent. On the other hand,, the total factor productivity decreased 1.2 percent due to 2.7 percent technical regress over the study period. Also, the results of regression estimation indicate that irrigation rate, tractor as an indicator of existing technology, and the geographic regions of enterprises are important determinants of production efficiency. |
| Keywords: | State agricultural enterprises in Turkey, total factor productivity growth, data envelopment analysis |
| JEL: | C43 D24 Q12 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ege:wpaper:0703&r=ino |