Appropriability,preemption, and firm performance

The impact of strategies used to appropriate innovation rents on firm performance is analyzed using a sample of U.S. public manufacturing firms. Stronger appropriability at the firm level, achieved through patent protection or the ownership of specialized complementary assets, leads to superior economic performance, as measured by the stock market valuation of a firm's R& D assets. Among commonly used ‘nonconventional’ patent strategies, preemptive patenting allows incumbents to strengthen their market power. Consistent with theory, such effect is higher for incumbents with higher ex ante market power and facing a higher threat of entry, and lower when R& D competition is characterized by the discovery of drastic innovations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Project Management–Related Software Systems and Their Legal Protection: Emergence,Distribution, and Relevance of Business Method Patents

The legal protection of project management–related software systems has changed recently, as patenting is spreading to the area of business methods. We investigate which parts of project management are especially confronted with this form of legal protection and how software system providers deal with this topic. Almost all the tasks of project management are permeated by business method patents but the intensity of these tasks differs remarkably. Their assignment—related to major project management software system providers—is unbalanced. While patenting‐experienced companies have already learned how to use business method patents to gain advantages in project management environments, many others have not.     

How beliefs influence behaviour: Confucianism and innovation in China

Previous studies have analysed how religious beliefs may affect economic activity. We extend this literature by examining how Confucianism is linked to innovation activity at the firm level in China. We analyse the relationship between Confucianism and several proxies for input and outputs of innovation activities. Our results show that Confucianism is significantly related to lower levels of innovation activity regardless of which measure for firm-level innovation we use. We also find that the nature of ultimate ownership influences this relationship, with innovation among state-controlled firms being significantly more affected by Confucianism. This study thus adds to the understanding of how traditional belief systems influence behaviour among economic actors.     

基于VAR模型的创新政策对企业绩效影响之研究

研发投入与专利产出作为创新政策重要组成部分，却在实践中存在褒贬不一。以我国台湾新竹科学园区1988-2014年间经营大数据，运用VAR模型分析研发投入、专利与企业绩效之间的关系，以及滞后效应。结果显示创新政策之研发投入、专利件数与企业绩效有长期稳定关系；研发投入对专利件数与企业绩效呈正向显著，且有滞后效应；专利对企业绩效呈正向显著，且具有滞后效应。     

Value appropriation as an organizational capability: the case of IP protection through patents

We develop and test a theoretical framework that describes the organizational antecedents of value appropriation capabilities in the context of obtaining patent protection. We argue that intermediate levels of cross‐functional involvement across intellectual property (IP) generation, protection, and utilization activities outperform very high or very low levels of functional specialization in terms of obtaining rapid patent protection; while these activities are distinct enough to generate gains from specialization, there are also significant gains to be generated by coordinating across them, which cross‐functional involvement achieves. Using a unique dataset that combines survey and patent (application) data, and multiple estimation techniques, we test and find support for our arguments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Keeping abreast of technology-driven business model evolution: a dynamic patent analysis approach

All firms that depend on technology for their competitive positions recognise that keeping abreast of technology-driven business model evolution is of vital importance. However, previous studies cannot offer a concrete way of profiling trends owing to the lack of quantitative data and systematic processes. We propose a dynamic patent analysis that can identify complex relationships among business method patents and visualise trends in technology-driven business model evolution. At the heart of the suggested approach is morphological analysis (MA) for structuring different types of business models at a technological attribute level and modified formal concept analysis (FCA) for investigating technological changes in business models over time. A case study of business method patents concerning electronic shopping is presented to show the feasibility of the proposed approach. We believe our method can promote consensus-building on up-to-date trends in technology-driven business model evolution, serving as a starting point for a more general model.     

Managing Interactions between Technological and Stylistic Innovation in the Media Industries

The processes of technological innovation have been widely researched, but their interactions with another type of innovation that is particularly important in sectors like the fashion and the media content industries have been neglected: stylistic innovation. This paper puts forward the idea that a better understanding of such interactions between content and technology in the media industries might help explaining differences in the receptiveness of firms towards new technological opportunities. The nature of the interactions, so it is argued in this paper, depends on three groups of key factors at the level of the product, the organization and the industry: among them, first, the locations of the different types of innovation in the media product's components; second, organizational factors like the identity and the reputation of a firm with respect to the above types of innovation; and third, the industry-specific characteristics of the certification environment in which the firms operate. Awards are discussed as specific instantiations of micro certification environments indicating quality with respect to stylistic and/or technological product features. To round off the theoretical part, a definition of stylistic innovation is developed with reference to the key concepts discussed in this paper. Within the media sector the literary publishing industry has been chosen to provide the subject of the empirical part. Two cases related to the introduction of eBook technology are presented: one is a study of the first digital literary publisher in Europe and the other is a case study of the first international eBook award, which mixes technological and stylistic criteria. Theory and cases lead to a number of hypotheses offered as potential departure points for future research into the interactions between innovation in style and technology.     

The effects of corporate governance and ownership on the innovation performance of Chinese SMEs

We investigate the degree to which corporate governance and ownership affect the innovation performance of firms in China with a particular focus on privately owned small and medium enterprises. Using the appropriate theoretical frameworks, we derive hypotheses regarding the impact of ownership concentration, board size and composition, and the background of the CEO on innovative activity. These hypotheses are tested using a unique sample of 370 mostly private and relatively small Chinese firms in Zhejiang province, for the period 2004–2006. Using two measures of innovation, invention patents and new product sales, and a variety of estimation methods appropriate to each measure, we find limited evidence that corporate governance affects innovation performance, but the results do depend on the measure of innovation. In general, the results suggest that for this sample, corporate governance and ownership affect innovation activity more strongly when innovation is measured by patenting activity, rather than new product sales. We conclude with a discussion about why this might be.     

Investigating the determinants of patent acquisition in biotechnology: an empirical analysis

Acquiring patents is an increasingly relevant opportunity for innovating companies, especially after the rise and development of the so-called markets for technologies (MFTs). However, only scant attention has been devoted to investigate patents' characteristics influencing their acquisition by organisations. Accordingly, this paper aims at filling this gap by analysing how four main characteristics – as patent scope, scientific knowledge cited by the patent, forward patent citations, and number of patent claims – impact the likelihood of patent acquisition. We based our statistical analysis on a sample of 9716 US Patent and Trademark Office patents assigned to 165 biotechnological firms. Results support our conjectures and offer interesting managerial implications for organisations operating within MFTs indicating which characteristics make patented technological solutions more likely to be acquired by other firms, as a narrow scope, inclusion of scientific knowledge, and a number of forward citations able to increase patent's impact and exclusion rights.