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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Fiona Murray; Scott Stern |
| Abstract: | While the potential for intellectual property rights to inhibit the diffusion of scientific knowledge is at the heart of several contemporary policy debates, evidence for the %u201Canti-commons effect%u201D has been anecdotal. A central issue in this debate is how intellectual property rights over a given piece of knowledge affects the propensity of future researchers to build upon that knowledge in their own scientific research activities. This article frames this debate around the concept of dual knowledge, in which a single discovery may contribute to both scientific research and useful commercial applications. A key implication of dual knowledge is that it may be simultaneously instantiated as a scientific research article and as a patent. Such patent-paper pairs are at the heart of our empirical strategy. We exploit the fact that patents are granted with a substantial lag, often many years after the knowledge is initially disclosed through paper publication. The knowledge associated with a patent paper pair therefore diffuses within two distinct intellectual property environments %u2013 one associated with the pre-grant period and another after formal IP rights are granted. Relative to the expected citation pattern for publications with a given quality level, anticommons theory predicts that the citation rate to a scientific publication should fall after formal IP rights associated with that publication are granted. Employing a differences-indifferences estimator for 169 patent-paper pairs (and including a control group of publications from the same journal for which no patent is granted), we find evidence for a modest anti-commons effect (the citation rate after the patent grant declines by between 9 and 17%). This decline becomes more pronounced with the number of years elapsed since the date of the patent grant, and is particularly salient for articles authored by researchers with public sector affiliations. |
| JEL: | O30 O33 O34 L33 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11465&r=tid |
| By: | Jinyoung Kim; Sangjoon John Lee; Gerald Marschke |
| Abstract: | We use U.S. patent records to examine the role of research personnel as a pathway for the diffusion of ideas from university to industry. Appearing on a patent assigned to a university is evidence that an inventor has been exposed to university research, either directly as a university researcher or through some form of collaboration with university researchers. Having an advanced degree is another indicator of an inventor's exposure to university research. We find a steady increase in industry's use of inventors with university research experience over the period 1985-97, economy wide and in the pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries in particular. We interpret this as evidence of growth in the influence of university research on industrial innovation. Moreover, during this period we find that firms with large research operations in both industries, and young and highly capitalized firms in the pharmaceutical industry, are disproportionately active in the diffusion of ideas from the university sector. Finally, we find that the patents of firms that employ inventors with university research experience are more likely to cite university patents as prior art, suggesting that this experience better enables firms to tap academic research. |
| JEL: | J62 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11447&r=tid |
| By: | Nijkamp, Peter (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Wissen, Leo van |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to review recent contributions to the study of entrepreneurship and firm dynamics from a methodological and firm demographic perspective. Understanding the contemporary changes in business life requires a thorough understanding of structural changes in entrepreneurial behaviour and firm dynamics, both in space and in time. The spatial and temporal aspects of business life have in recent years received much attention, and a review is given here. The framework concept of the 'firm life course' is proposed in this article to integrate both dimensions. The firm life course represents the way firms organize their life path over time in sequences of critical events, decisions, and periods. The dimensions of time and space appear to be highly connected in business life. Not only is firm mobility increasing, but also are entrepreneurs increasingly acting as networkers. The emergence of virtual and dynamic networks of entrepreneurs calls for new methods of research of dealing with them. This article maps out some of the modern research trends in this domain. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; dynamics |
| Date: | 2004 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2004-13&r=tid |
| By: | Megan MacGarvie; Jeffrey L. Furman |
| Abstract: | The establishment and growth of industrial research laboratories is one of the key organizational innovations affecting technological progress in the United States in the 20th century. In this paper, we investigate the rise of industrial research laboratories in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry between 1927 and 1946. Our evidence suggests that institutional factors, namely the presence of universities dedicated to research, played a significant role in the establishment and diffusion of private pharmaceutical research laboratories. Specifically, we document that the growth of industrial pharmaceutical laboratories between 1927 and 1946 is positively and significantly correlated with the extent of local university research, after controlling for other observable factors likely to influence the geographic distribution of industrial research. We supplement our core results with case histories illustrative of early university-industry interaction and an examination of the determinants of university-industry research cooperation. Our qualitative historical evidence and analyses of the birth of chemical engineering programs suggest that industry also played a role in influencing university research agendas. We correct for feedback effects from industry to universities using instrumental variables. Overall, our analyses suggest that while the presence of industrial facilities helped shape the direction of university research programs, there was a significant, positive, and causal effect running from university research to the growth of pharmaceutical research laboratories in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. |
| JEL: | O32 N00 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11470&r=tid |
| By: | Andrew A. Toole; Dirk Czarnitzki |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the U.S. Small Business Innovation research (SBIR) program as a policy fostering academic entrepreneurship. We highlight two main characteristics of the program that make it attractive as an entrepreneurship policy: early-stage financing and scientist involvement in commercialization. Using unique data on NIH supported biomedical researchers, we trace the incidence of biomedical entrepreneurship through SBIR and describe some of the characteristics of these individuals. To explore the importance of early-stage financing and scientist involvement, we complement our individual level data with information on scientist-linked and non-linked SBIR firms. Our results show that the SBIR program is being used as a commercialization channel by academic scientists. Moreover, we find that the firms associated with these scientists perform significantly better than other non-linked SBIR firms in terms of follow-on venture capital funding, SBIR program completion, and patenting. |
| JEL: | O38 O31 G38 M13 C25 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11450&r=tid |
| By: | Thomas Hellmann; |
| Abstract: | This paper examines an ex-post rationale for the patenting of scientific discoveries. In this model, scientist do not know which firms can make use of their discoveries, and firms do not know which scientific discoveries might be useful to them. To bridge this gap, either or both sides need to engage in costly search activities. Patents determine the appropriability of scientific discoveries, which affects the scientists. and firms. willingness to engage in search. Patents decrease dissemination when the search intensity of firms is sufficiently elastic, relative to that of scientists. The model also examines the role of universities. Patents facilitate the delegation of search activities to the universities%u2019 technology transfer offices, which enables efficient specialization. Rather than distracting scientists from doing research, patenting may be a complement to doing research. |
| JEL: | O33 O34 M13 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11460&r=tid |
| By: | Giorgio Gobbi (Economics Research Department, Bank of Italy); Francesca Lotti (Economics Research Department, Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | During the last decades there has been a widespread relaxation of legal entry barriers into the banking industry, with potential benefits for financial integration and competition. Obstacles to banks' geographical and business expansion have been removed and branching has been substantially liberalized. This paper analyzes the determinants of entry decisions into local credit markets using a unique data set before and after deregulation of the Italian banking industry. We estimate an entry model à la Poisson and find evidence that spreads between loan and deposit rates drive entry only for newly chartered banks, but does not affect the decision to open branches of banks operating in other markets. Branching by outside banks is instead positively correlated with business opportunities in the provision of financial services which do not require the acquisition of substantial proprietary information. Both these results are consistent with the hypothesis that in credit markets incumbents have an informational advantage over new entrants. |
| Keywords: | Entry, deregulation, informational barriers, count data, overdispersion |
| JEL: | G21 L22 C25 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_535_04&r=tid |
| By: | Kiyohiko G. Nishimura (Policy Board, Bank of Japan); Takanobu Nakajima (Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University); Kozo Kiyota (Faculty of Business Administration, Yokohama National University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model of firm-level productivity growth that distinguishes between innovation and technology diffusion, and then applies the model to a large-scale data set of Japanese manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms between 1994 and 2000. We find both innovation and diffusion are important factors in firm-level productivity growth. Results also suggest that innovation comes not only directly from R&D activities, but also indirectly from patent purchases and imports. Previously, patent purchases and imports were considered as sources of technology diffusion rather than innovation. In fact, we find patent purchases are more effective in this regard than R&D expenditure. |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2005cf350&r=tid |
| By: | Tobias Schmidt (ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the determinants of R&D co-operation among German manufacturing firms. Using firm level data from the Third Community Innovation Survey from Germany, we focus on the role of spillovers in explaining R&D cooperation. We also investigate firms’ decisions to cooperate with research institutions or with suppliers and customers. Implementing a two-step estimation procedure, we find a significant effect of knowledge flows on the probability of R&D co-operation in most model specifications. Additionally, we show that firms with high intramural R&D budgets are more likely to cooperate with universities and research institutions than with suppliers and customers. |
| Keywords: | Spillovers, R&D Co-operation, CIS 3 |
| JEL: | O P |
| Date: | 2005–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0506006&r=tid |