Quantity or Quality? Collaboration Strategies in Research and Development and Incentives to Patent

Abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. Non-technical summaryCollaborative research and development (R&D) may be seen as a response to shifting knowledge environments enabling firms to cope with technological challenges. As stressed by Jones (2008), innovation increases the stock of knowledge and hence the "educational burden" of future cohorts of innovators. One way to compensate this development may be specialization in expertise. However, narrowing expertise requires firms to seek complementary know-how elsewhere, for instance by collaborating in knowledge-intensive business areas like R&D.While numerous previous studies found R&D alliances to be instruments used by firms to acquire new skills and to source specialized know-how (e.g. Hamel, 1991;Hagedoorn, 1993;Hagedoorn and Schakenraad, 1994;Powell et al., 1996), none of these studies paid attention to differences in the objective of the R&D collaboration and how these differences affect R&D productivity. Collaboration aiming at the joint generation of new knowledge, that is firms willing to undertake an R&D project jointly, may differ substantially from alliances aiming at the explicit exchange of already existing knowledge. This difference may translate into differences with respect to the alliances' effects on R&D productivity and eventually innovation output. Furthermore, while previous empirical studies found evidence for a positive effect of collaborations on innovation output, often measured in the number of patents, the effects on the technological value of these patents has not been studied to the same extent.Using count data models controlling for unobserved heterogeneity for R&D-active manufacturing firms in Flanders in the period 2000 to 2009, this study aims to fill these gaps. We study the effects of R&D collaboration on patent activity in terms of quantity as well as quality differentiating between collaborative agreements by their declared objectives. The results suggest that being engaged in knowledge exchange alliances leads to more patent applications filed by the firms involved. However, once patent quality -as measured by the number forwards citations received in a five-year-window of the application date -is considered, we find knowledge creation alliances to lead to more valuable patents. In line with recent literature on strategic patenting, these results may indicate that patenting of collaborating firms is not only used to protect intellectual property, but also as a strategic tool. In other words, joint R&D may provide i...

Co-owner relationships conducive to high quality joint patents

“…While the literature on research and development (R&D) collaboration is significant (e.g., Faems et al, 2005;Hoekman et al, 2010;Hottenrott and Lopes-Bento, 2012;Letaifa and Rabeau, 2013;Freeman et al, 2014;Lin et al, 2014), literature specific to joint patenting is relatively scarce. Joint patenting, also known as copatenting, is a phenomenon in which more than one firm possesses full ownership of a patent.…”

Do formal and informal protection methods affect firms' productivity and financial performance?

“…For example, the panel study of Artz, Norman, Hatfield, and Cardinal (2010) on US firms' found that firms undertaking R&D were more likely to introduce patents. However, due to a lack of financial resources, SMEs can receive R&D support programs such as R&D subsidies, R&D grants or tax credit to accelerate their firm's performance (see, Hottenrott & Lopes-Bento, 2012). Further, Benavente and Goya (2012) conducted a microlevel qualitative study on Chilean firms' and found that the high unit cost of R&D, no tax incentives and the lack of R&D support programs are the major obstacles to Chilean SMEs.…”