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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Richard Nelson |
| Abstract: | Many of the points argued in this old paper have withstood the tests of time. The economic contribution of basic research is to enable or facilitate downstream invention. The range of inventions that may be facilitated by basic research is unpredictable, but often large. For these reasons, it is desirable that the results of basic research be in the public domain rather than being patented. One major point has turned out not to be fully true. In some cases the results of basic research can be and have been patented. The heart of this essay is an exploration of the problems that have been caused in recent years by the patenting of basic research results, and a consideration of the policy options and appropriate responses. |
| Keywords: | Basic research, Science, Public Domain, Patenting, Bayh-Dole |
| Date: | 2006–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2006/20&r=tid |
| By: | Giulio Bottazzi; Angelo Secchi |
| Abstract: | We introduce a new 5-parameter family of distributions, the Asymmetric Exponential Power (AEP), able to cope with asymmetries and leptokurtosis and at the same time allowing for a continuous variation from non-normality to normality. We prove that the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimates of the AEP parameters are consistent on the whole parameter space, and when sufficiently large values of the shape parameters are considered, they are also asymptotically efficient and normal. We derive the Fisher information matrix for the AEP and we show that it can be continuously extended also to the region of small shape parameters. Through numerical simulations, we find that this extension can be used to obtain a reliable value for the errors associated to ML estimates also for samples of relatively small size ( 100 observations). Moreover we find that at this sample size, the bias associated with ML estimates, although present, becomes negligible. |
| Keywords: | Maximum Likelihood estimation, Asymmetric Exponential Power, Information matrix |
| Date: | 2006–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2006/19&r=tid |
| By: | Kozo Kiyota; Miho Takizawa |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the pre-exit productivity performance and asks how productivity affects future survival, controlling for firm size and unobserved firm heterogeneity. Based on firm-level data in Japan for 1995–2002, we found that firms did not face "sudden death" but there was a "shadow of death." Future exiting firms had lower performance five years before their exit. Moreover, unobserved firm heterogeneity had a statistically significant effect on firm survival analysis. However, we also found that the effects of unobserved heterogeneity were not very large and thus did not reverse the conclusion. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:06033&r=tid |
| By: | Linda R. Cohen (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); Jun Ishii (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine) |
| Abstract: | The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office resolves patent priority disputes in patent interference cases. Using a random sample of cases declared between 1988 and 1994, we establish a connection between patent interferences and patent races, and then use the data to consider some key issues in dynamic competition and innovation. We look at the incidence and distribution of patent races by technology, evidence for strategic delay of innovation by incumbent firms, and evidence that patent races moderate incentives to delay. Our results have implications for patent policy in general and for evaluating the U.S. “first to invent” patent priority rule. |
| Keywords: | Patent race, Patent interference, US Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, Patent litigation; Innovation; Research and development |
| JEL: | K41 L20 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:050604&r=tid |
| By: | Finn Valentin; Henrich Dahlgren; Rasmus Lund Jensen |
| Abstract: | Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategize in this core of their activity. Popular views on Dedicated Biotech Firms (DBFs) see the inherent uncertainty of research as defying notions of strategizing, directing instead the attention to the quality of their science, or the roles of boards, management, and collaborative networks etc. Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper analyzes their research strategies. Adopting a Simonean point of departure we develop a contingency view on complex problem solving which structures the argument into three steps: 1) Characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs; 2) Testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures; 3) Testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require careful combination of multiple dimensions of research. Findings demonstrate that Shonhoovens classical argument that “strategy matters” is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Even though a lot more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management, and financing of these firms. |
| Keywords: | Biotechnology; research strategy; discovery fields; valuation; performance measures |
| JEL: | L25 L65 O32 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:06-11&r=tid |
| By: | Erik Stam |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship is an important process in regional economic development. Especially the continued growth of a minority of new firms is of major significance to the commercialization of new ideas and employment growth. These growing new firms are transforming on a structural basis, like caterpillars turning into butterflies. However, like butterflies they are at risk to leave their region of origin for better places. This paper analyses how and why the spatial organization of firms develops subsequent to their start-up. A new conceptual framework and an empirical study of the life course of entrepreneurial firms are used to construct a theory on their locational behavior that explains that behavior as the outcome of a process of initiatives taken by entrepreneurs, enabled and constrained by resources, capabilities and relations with stakeholders within and outside of the firm. This study shows that entrepreneurs decide whether or not to move their firm outside of their region of origin for different reasons in distinct phases of the firm life course. Being embedded in social networks, for example, is an important constraint on locational behavior during the early life course of a firm, but over time this becomes less important and other mechanisms like sunk costs increasingly determine the locational behavior of fast-growing firms. The development of the spatial organization is also of major importance: when a multilocational spatial organization has been realized, it is much easier to move the headquarters to another region. The spatial organization of entrepreneurial firms co-evolves with the accumulation of their capabilities. A developmental approach incorporating evolutionary mechanisms and recognizing human agency provides new insights into the age-old study of firm location. |
| Keywords: | location, location behavior, spatial organization, theory of the firm, entrepreneurial firms, entrepreneurship, firm growth, regional economic development |
| JEL: | D21 L14 L22 M13 R11 R30 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2006-20&r=tid |
| By: | Terttu Luukkonen; Mari Maunula |
| Keywords: | venture capital, biotechnology |
| JEL: | O16 G24 O38 L65 |
| Date: | 2006–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1032&r=tid |