基于实物期权逻辑对企业专利放弃的新诠释

主流研究认为专利放弃是专利质量低导致的"被动"技术投资失败,但实践中专利放弃有时是企业"主动"修剪专利组合的理性结果。二者矛盾,是因为研究者的视角局限在专利个体质量,而企业着眼于专利组合及长期战略目标。从企业战略的角度出发,借鉴实物期权理论,试图通过分析内外部环境的不确定性对专利放弃行为的影响,揭示企业处置专利时隐含的期权逻辑。研究通过对1992-2017年2380家A股上市企业面板数据进行实证分析发现,外生不确定性和内生不确定性会抑制企业的专利放弃行为,同时在企业专利组合多样化程度更高时不确定性对专利放弃的抑制作用更强,意味着多样化的专利组合对应对不确定性的作用更强。研究结果补充了传统研究中专利维持取决于专利质量这一观点的一元性,指出专利作为一种实物期权资产,其决策同时受到环境和专利组合层面特征的共同影响。

A New Interpretation of Firm Patent Abandonment Based on Real Option Logic

Mainstream research suggest that patent abandonment is a “passive” failure of technology investment caused by the low patent quality. While in practice, firms sometimes rationally abandon patents as a result of “actively” pruning their patent portfolios. The contradiction between the two is due to that researcher’s perspective is limited to individual patent quality, while firms focus on the patent portfolio and long-term strategic goals. This study attempts to anchor on the strategy of the enterprises, draw on the real option theory, and analyze the impact of the uncertainty of the internal and external environment on the patent abandonment behavior, revealing the option logic implied by the enterprise when disposing of the patent. The empirical analysis of panel data of 2,380 A-share listed companies in 1992-2017 shows that exogenous uncertainty and endogenous uncertainty will inhibit the company’s patent abandonment behavior. Further, the study finds that when the company’s patent portfolio is more diversified, the negative effect of uncertainty on patent abandonment is stronger, indicating that the diversified patent portfolio is more valuable when addressing uncertainty. These findings complement the traditional research in which patent maintenance depends on the quality of patents, suggesting that patents are a kind of real option assets, patent decisions are simultaneously affected by the environment and the patent portfolio characteristics.