Information ambiguity,patents and the market value of innovative assets

Research and development (R&D) is often essential for firms’ profitability and growth. At the same time, R&D is long-term and risky. We show that innovation activities lead to information ambiguity about the future value of firms’ assets. This effect appears to be more pronounced for small and less reputed firms. Information ambiguity further lowers firms’ market value and, in particular, the market value of innovative assets. We further show that high quality patents mitigate the negative effect of information ambiguity to some extent.     

The private value of software patents

We investigate the value creation or destruction associated with the introduction of software patents in the United States in two ways. The first looks at the cumulative abnormal returns to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) firms around the time of important court decisions that impacted software patents, and the second analyzes the relationship between firms’ stock market value, the sector in which they operate, and their holdings of software patents. We conclude that the market evaluated software patents as a negative development ex ante. Ex post, a greater number of firms in all ICT sectors invested in these patents, and these firms had slightly higher market values than those with no software patents. However, while we obtain clear evidence that the technological importance or quality of patented innovation mattered for the market value of hardware firms both before and after the legal changes, it is less clear that the marginal patent right per se was associated with increases in market value, and there are no significant valuation effects associated with patents for pure software firms after the change.     

Royalties, evolving patent rights, and the value of innovation

The value of an innovation to the innovator can change over time, especially in response to changes in the legal protection (such as patent rights) afforded the innovator. A proven-valid-and-infringed patent is a more valuable economic commodity than is an untested patent. The increase in value can be estimated using the success rate of patent lawsuits. Using a database of the outcomes of U.S. patent litigation, we find that plaintiffs win patent litigation some 45% of the time at the trial court level. This has implications both for patent damages awards and for the incentives to innovate.     

Commercialization of patents and external financing during the R&D phase

Using a unique database on Swedish patents owned by small firms and individuals, survival models estimate how different factors influence the decision to commercialize the patents. Such an analysis has seemingly never previously been undertaken. Since the owners know more about the patents than potential external financiers, problems related to asymmetrical information are present. To overcome these problems when inventors and small technology-based firms need financing, Sweden has for a long time relied on government support rather than private venture capital firms. The empirical results show that the larger is the share of patent-owners’ costs covered by government financial support during the R&D phase, the lower is the probability of patents being commercialized. This lower degree of commercialization is likely to depend on (1) the soft terms of the government loans, where the patent owner can avoid paying back the loan if the patent is never commercialized and/or (2) that the government is not able to select promising projects. The first explanation is related to moral hazard and the second one to adverse selection. The policy suggestion is for government to change the design of the loans, to base them on firms rather than projects.     

R&D spillovers, patents and the incentives to innovate in Japan and the United States

National surveys of R&D labs across the manufacturing sectors in the US and Japan show that intraindustry R&D knowledge flows and spillovers are greater in Japan than in the US and the appropriability of rents due to innovation less. Patents in particular are observed to play a more central role in diffusing information across rivals in Japan, and appear to be a key reason for greater intraindustry R&D spillovers there, suggesting that patent policy can importantly affect information flows. Uses of patents differ between the two nations, with strategic uses of patents, particularly for negotiations, being more common in Japan.     

The value of innovation: The interaction of competition, R&D and IP

This paper analyses market valuations of UK companies using a new data set of their R&D and IP activities (1989-2002). In contrast to previous studies, the analysis is conducted at the sectoral-level, where the sectors are based on the technological classification originating from Pavitt [Pavitt, K., 1984. Sectoral patterns of technical change. Research Policy 13, 343-373]. The first main result is that the valuation of R&D varies substantially across these sectors. Another important result is that, on average, firms that receive only UK patents tend to have no significant market premium. In direct contrast, patenting through the European Patent Office does raise market value, as does the registration of trade marks in the UK for most sectors. To explore these variations the paper links competitive conditions with the market valuation of innovation. Using profit persistence as a measure of competitive pressure, we find that the sectors that are the most competitive have the lowest market valuation of R&D. Furthermore, within the most competitive sector (‘science based’ manufacturing), firms with larger market shares (an inverse indicator of competitive pressure) also have higher R&D valuations, as well as some positive return to UK patents. We conclude that this evidence supports Schumpeter by finding higher returns to innovation in less than fully competitive markets and contradicts Arrow [Arrow, K., 1962. Economic welfare and the allocation of resources for invention. In: Nelson, R. (Ed.), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity. Princeton University Press, Princeton], who argued that, with the existence of IP rights, competitive market structure provides higher incentives to innovate.     

The lag structure of the relationship between patenting and internal R&D revisited

The principal purpose of this study is to revisit the classic research question regarding the lag structure of the patents–R&D relationship through an examination of the impact of internal R&D on firm patenting in the context of the global pharmaceutical industry during 1986–2000. Our empirical analysis, using both a multiplicative distributed lag model and a dynamic linear feedback model, differs from previous work that examines the patents–R&D relationship in three aspects. First, our estimation results exhibit direct evidence on lagged R&D effects, with the first lag (t − 1) of R&D being significant in all distributed lag specifications. Second, a U-shaped lag structure of the patents–R&D relationship is found in most estimations of the multiplicative distributed lag model, which suggests a potential long-run effect of internal R&D investments on firm patenting. Finally, the results from the dynamic linear feedback model coincide with those from the multiplicative distributed lag model, indicating not only lag effects from more recent R&D but also an overall long-run effect of internal R&D investments in the distant past on the knowledge production or innovation process of incumbent pharmaceutical firms.     

Globalization of R&D by US-based multinational enterprises

This paper examines patterns and determinants of overseas R&D investment by US-based manufacturing MNEs using a new panel dataset over the period 1990–2004. The analysis reveals that R&D intensity of operation of US MNE affiliates is determined mainly by the domestic market size, overall R&D capability and cost of hiring R&D personnel. There is no evidence to suggest that R&D specific incentives have a significant impact on inter-country differences in R&D intensity when controlled for other relevant variables. Overall, our findings cast doubts on the efficacy of efforts by host country governments to entice MNE affiliates to engage in domestic R&D activity, in a context where R&D is becoming a truly global activity.     

The innovative performance of in-house and contracted R&D in terms of patents and utility models

The standard empirical framework for analysing the R&D-patents relationship is widened both by examining the different role of in-house and contracted R&D in the innovative performance of firms, and by considering patents and utility models counts as measures of innovation output. Patents and utility models are considered to approximate for significant and incremental innovations, respectively. Applying count data econometrics to a panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms surveyed in the period 1990-1996, a transcendental production function is estimated, which allows for non-constant elasticities of the R&D inputs. The results indicate that significant innovations are mainly gestated in-house, whereas contracted R&D seems more orientated towards innovations of incremental nature.     

政府研发资助、企业研发投入与中国创新效率

本文采用2003-2012年中国地区面板数据,利用超越对数的随机前沿模型和门限回归模型就政府研发资助和企业研发投入对中国创新效率的影响及政府研发资助和企业研发投入的最优强度区间进行分析。研究发现:目前在我国创新过程中,政府研发资助对创新效率的影响为负,存在一定的"政府失灵",企业研发投入能够促进创新效率的提高,"市场失灵"现象较少出现;政府研发资助强度的最优区间为0.282以上,企业研发投入强度的最优区间为0.688-0.775。     

研发支出资本化对价值相关性的影响

本文从价值相关性的角度探讨了2007年中国会计准则对研发支出从费用化到有条件资本化的改革对会计信息估值角色的影响。本文利用价格模型和回报模型,采用双重差分(Diff-in-Diff)的方法,并使用四种定义来判断公司是否受研发支出资本化的影响。结果表明,研发支出资本化之后,公司的会计信息更能反映公司的价值,而且这种提升主要体现在会计质量低的公司样本以及非国有企业样本中。这意味着研发支出资本化提升了会计信息的估值功能,具有积极的经济后果。     

战略性新兴产业研发投入、政府补助与企业价值

理论研究表明企业研发投入具有价值相关性,政府补助对企业研发投入与企业价值的关系具有调节作用。以2010—2014年278家战略性新兴产业上市公司为研究对象,利用固定效应面板模型实证研究发现:企业研发投入会显著降低企业当期财务绩效和市场价值,提高企业滞后两期的财务绩效以及滞后三期的企业市场价值;滞后一期的政府补助与企业的财务绩效与市场价值显著负相关,但对企业财务绩效的创造具有增量解释作用。     

To trademark or not to trademark: The case of the creative and cultural industries

Research on the use of trademarks by innovating companies is growing. Yet, large research gaps exist in our understanding of the use of trademarks beyond manufacturing and beyond specific service sectors. This study focuses on the creative and cultural industries (CCIs) and argues that these industries represent a salient case to advance research on trademarks. After reviewing the main characteristics of CCIs, a conceptual framework is developed to classify motives to trademark and motives not to trademark for firms in these industries. The paper offers original empirical evidence on the relevance of these motives from survey results on a sample of 486 European firms in five selected CCIs.Results from principal component analysis are used to propose a taxonomy of firms with specific attitudes and strategies towards trademarking. All results are discussed in terms of their implications for using trademarks as the basis for novel economic indicators of product variety and innovation.     

全球创新价值链模式的国际研发投资转移研究

全球创新价值链作为新近出现的组织当今国际研发投资转移的主要方式,势必对全球科技创新的微观基础产生根本性影响。它打破了跨国公司海外投资主要为其产品提供本地化技术服务的功能格局,是国际分工进一步朝纵深方向发展的外在表现。在对全球创新价值链模式的国际研发投资转移概念进行界定的基础上,论文对全球创新价值链模式的国际研发投资转移的动力、影响,及其对中国自主创新升级的启示进行了系统阐述。论文认为,国际研发投资转移不是目的,重要的是通过何种方式实施国际研发投资转移,以及这种方式背后的驱动力量及协调机制对中国自主创新升级及区域转型发展的意义。     

The Venetian Moment: New Technologies,Legal Innovation and the Institutional Origins of Intellectual Property

The role of the Venetian republic in the history of intellectual property is not well known although the innovations which were later codified into law by the British Crown, and which are usually regarded as heralding the age of intellectual property, were first developed a century before in Venice. This article explores these precursors to the more commonplace understanding of the origins of intellectual property law, and draws some parallels between the current debates about property in knowledge and the time of its first formal emergence some 500 years ago.     

(International) R&D collaboration and SMEs: The effectiveness of targeted public R&D support schemes

This study analyses the impact and effectiveness of targeted public support for R&D investment at the firm level. We test whether the policy design aiming at incentivizing (international) collaboration and R&D in SMEs achieves input as well as output additionality. Our results show that the targeted public subsidies trigger R&D spending, especially so in internationally collaborating SMEs. We further evaluate the different impact of privately financed and publicly induced R&D investment on innovation performance. The results confirm that the publicly induced R&D is productive as it translates into marketable product innovations. While both types of R&D investments trigger significant output effects, the effect of policy-induced R&D investment on sales from market novelties is highest for international collaborators as well as for SMEs.     

Overseas R&D, knowledge sourcing, and patenting: an empirical study of Japanese R&D investment in the US

This paper purports to study the contribution of R&D at home and abroad to the firm’s inventive activity, using a sample of 137 Japanese multinationals. The empirical analysis relates the number of inventions in Japan and that in the US, as measured by the number of patents issued by the USPTO, to the parent’s R&D, the US subsidiaries’ R&D, the presence of R&D in Europe, the firm’s experience in the US, entry mode, and industry dummies. In addition, to study the subsidiary’s role in sourcing local technological knowledge, we construct indices of local technological strength of the state in which the subsidiary is located. The results, most importantly, indicate that these indices positively contribute to inventions at home and in the US among Type R firms, whose R&D subsidiaries mainly aim to research, suggesting that knowledge sourcing is an important function of these subsidiaries and locational choice is important for this purpose. These results do not hold among Type S firms, whose R&D subsidiaries mainly aim to support local manufacturing and sales activities.     

R&D intensity, value appropriation and integration patterns within organizational boundaries

Complementary insights from Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm are combined to predict the relationship between firm specific technological knowledge and patterns of integration within organizational boundaries. The findings show that the level of Research and Development (R&D) intensity (representing the creation of firm specific technological knowledge) has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the propensity of firms to integrate activities within organizational boundaries. At low levels of R&D intensity, firms’ propensity to integrate their activities is low, but increases with escalating levels of R&D intensity in order to avoid the misappropriation of value generated by technological knowledge. However, beyond a certain R&D intensity level, the propensity to integrate activities declines, since the level of technological knowledge is high enough to prevent imitation by third parties. As expected we further find that firms which follow this integration pattern outperform those which do not. As the level of R&D intensity increases, the integration of production and marketing activities enables firms to improve performance until a certain R&D intensity threshold, after which such integration negatively affects performance.     

Sticky information and heterogeneous needs as determining factors of R&D cooperation with customers

The aim of this work is to investigate the factors determining cooperation in developing innovations between firms and a specific group of agents, customers and users. The central point of the analysis is two variables recognised in previous studies as important factors in the study of cooperation with these agents, but which basically have been dealt with from a purely theoretical viewpoint. These variables are: (1) the existence of sticky information (information which is costly to obtain, transfer and use) and (2) the presence of heterogeneous needs in the market. Regarding the first variable, we have also taken into account two kinds of information which can be sticky: information on needs and information of technological nature. The findings obtained, using a Spanish sample of firms, show clearly that all these three factors exert a positive influence on cooperative relationships with these agents.     

Beyond formal R&D: Taking advantage of other sources of innovation in low- and medium-technology industries

This study deepens our knowledge of critical success factors in the innovation process of low- and medium-technology (LMT) industries. To accomplish this, it explores how the innovation process in LMT firms may depend on non-formal R&D activities and the use of external sources. The empirical analysis is based on a representative panel of Spanish manufacturing firms. The results strongly support the view that non-R&D activities such as design, the use of advanced machinery and training are crucial to understanding the innovation process of any firm. The study finds, however, that the impact of these activities is especially important in LMT industries, particularly for the achievement of product innovations. The empirical evidence also reveals the importance of external sources such as the use of consultants, the hiring of personnel, collaboration agreements and external R&D, with the greatest differences between LMT and high-technology (HT) firms being observed in process innovations.