Getting Started with PATSTAT Register

This article provides a technical introduction to the PATSTAT Register database, which contains bibliographical, procedural and legal status data on patent applications handled by the European Patent Office. It presents eight MySQL queries that cover some of the most relevant aspects of the database for research purposes. It targets academic researchers and practitioners who are familiar with the PATSTAT database and the MySQL language.     

(Non‐)Participation in deliberation at work: a case study of online participative decision‐making

Social media are implemented by organisations to enhance productivity and knowledge sharing among employees, but they can also support group deliberation and employee voice. This paper presents a case study of an online deliberation initiative involving the discussion of a contentious internal policy within an organisation of around 550 knowledge workers. The deliberation process lasted 5 weeks and actively involved 167 employees. Different sources of information (user interaction logs, activity patterns, questionnaire responses) were analysed to investigate the impact of participation, or non‐participation, on the level of satisfaction with the deliberation, and on the understanding of the issue discussed. The findings suggest that (1) interest is a driver for participation, but it does not explain active participation, (2) participation, either active or passive, positively influences the understanding of the issue and (3) satisfaction with the outcome is not related to participation, but it may support participation in future initiatives.     

Approximate pricing of swaptions in affine and quadratic models

This paper proposes new bounds on the prices of European-style swaptions for affine and quadratic interest rate models. These bounds are computable whenever the joint characteristic function of the state variables is known. In particular, our lower bound involves the computation of a one-dimensional Fourier transform independently of the swap length. In addition, we control the error of our method by providing a new upper bound on swaption price that is applicable to all considered models. We test our bounds on different affine models and on a quadratic Gaussian model. We also apply our procedure to the multiple curve framework. The bounds are found to be accurate and computationally efficient.     

Irreversible investment and R&D spillovers in a dynamic duopoly

Investments in new production processes usually involve a significant amount of R&D, generating spillovers that lowers the second comer's investment cost. We show that these spillovers substantially affect the equilibrium of the dynamic game. Even for low spillover values, the leader delays her investment until the stochastic fundamental has gone past the level such that the follower's optimal strategy is to invest as soon as he attains the spillover. This bears several interesting implications. First, because the follower invests as he benefits from the spillover, in equilibrium the average time delay between the two investments is short, as it should be expected. Second, in case of a major innovation, an optimal public policy requires an intervention in favor of the investment activity; an increase in uncertainty - delaying the equilibrium - calls for higher subsidization rates. Third, numerical simulations show that the spillover reduces the difference between the leader's and the follower's maximum value functions. Accordingly, our model can help generate realistic market betas.     

Building responses to sustainable development challenges: A multistakeholder collaboration framework and application to climate change

The affirmation of open innovation and collaborative systems is enabling unprecedented opportunities to create business value while facilitating multistakeholder conversation on sustainability issues. In particular, platform‐based models are emerging as organization archetypes able to facilitate cooperative dynamics among industrial actors, policy makers, academicians, scientists, and citizens. In this article, we use interdisciplinary business management and collaborative innovation literature to build the conceptual framework of a multisided platform as a collaboration environment gathering actors willing to define responses to sustainable development challenges. We present five dimensions or “genes,” that is, the focus and strategic intent or orientation of the platform (what), the participating sides, actors and groups (who), the actions, flows and coordination mechanisms (how), and the value drivers, benefits and externalities (why), and the rules regulating the affiliation and interaction processes (governance). We also present and discuss 30 subtopics or management items that are associated with the five dimensions defined. We then apply the conceptual model to analyze a case in the climate change endeavor and to show how competitive and cooperative dynamics can be virtuously integrated to provide individual‐ and company‐driven responses to a timely socioenvironmental issue. The article provides a new perspective on collaboration to enhance social development, and it offers theoretical and practitioner insights for a broad interdisciplinary audience including scholars, practitioners, business, and platform managers.     

The determinants of university–industry collaboration in food science in Italy

Firms’ collaboration with academic institutions expands their range of expertise and can support the development of business innovations in several industries. For technological as well as structural reasons, university–industry collaborations are especially important in the case of the food industry. This paper aims at assessing the drivers of knowledge transfer from academic departments to industry. We analyse the dynamics of private funding of university research activities and investigate the drivers of university knowledge transfer from food science university departments, identifying how they differ from drivers in other areas of science. The empirical investigation is based on the econometric analysis of financial data on the whole population of university departments in Italy. We provide some implications for policy, highlighting whether and how university food science departments differ from university departments engaged in other areas of science, and how their interactions with industry can be increased.