Reputations for Toughness in Patent Enforcement: Implications for Knowledge Spillovers via Inventor Mobility

Agarwal, Rajshree; Ganco, Martin; Ziedonis, Rosemarie Ham

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1083263

Cited by 60 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 100 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…An extensive body of research relates inter-firm employee mobility to innovative outcomes (Allen, 1984;Rosenkopf and Almeida, 2003;Song et al, 2003;Singh and Agrawal, 2011;Agarwal et al, 2004;Agarwal et al, 2009;etc. ) In particular, Song et al (2003) argue that inter-firm mobility does not merely lead to transfer of information; it may also facilitate the transfer of capabilities, promoting further knowledge building.…”

Section: Intra-firm Mobility and Innovation Outcomes Within A Distribmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Innovation Outcomes in a Distributed Organization: Intrafirm Mobility and Access to Resources

Choudhury¹

2017

Organization Science

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Prior research has established a relation between intra-firm mobility and innovation outcomes at distributed organizations. The literature has also uniformly agreed on the mechanism underlying this relationship: the sharing of tacit knowledge and recombination of ideas that occurs because of intra-firm mobility. But a second mechanism may also be at work: intra-firm mobility might help distant employees secure access to resources for their innovative projects. Using unique data on travel, employment, and patenting for 1,315 inventors at the Indian R&D center of a Fortune 50 multinational, I find that intra-firm mobility in the form of short-duration business trips from a distant R&D location to headquarters is positively related to higher subsequent patenting at the individual level. I also find mobility immediately prior to meetings at which R&D funds are most likely to be disbursed to be related to higher subsequent patenting. This study sheds new light on how intra-firm mobility and possible face-to-face interactions with those who allocate resources might affect innovation outcomes and the matching of resources to individuals within a distributed organization.

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Section: Intra-firm Mobility and Innovation Outcomes Within A Distribmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is well established that mobility is related to innovation outcomes among engineers and scientists (Almeida and Kogut, 1999;Agarwal et al, 2004;Agarwal et al, 2009;Singh, 2005;Singh and Agrawal, 2011). This paper looks at intra-firm mobility, a topic that has received less attention than inter-firm mobility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation Outcomes in a Distributed Organization: Intrafirm Mobility and Access to Resources

Choudhury¹

2017

Organization Science

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“…On the one hand, outgoing knowledge spillovers may be difficult to prevent through legal mechanisms, because knowledge spillovers are mostly tacit and often occur through interpersonal interactions. On the other hand, studies have documented that firms effectively make use of legal instruments aiming to reduce employee mobility (Almeida and Kogut, 1999, Rosenkopf and Almeida, 2003, Song et al, 2003 and that non-compete contracts and employers' patent litigiousness significantly reduce employee mobility (Marx et al, 2009, Agarwal et al, 2009). …”

Section: Strategies To Prevent Knowledge Spilloversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marx et al, 2009, Marx, 2011, aggressive patent enforcement strategies (e.g. Agarwal et al, 2009), and geographically dispersed but interrelated internal R&D activities that ensure that technological knowledge developed in one location is of little use without complementary knowledge developed in other locations (Zhao, 2006, Alcácer andZhao, 2012). Such strategies, while often intended to prevent knowledge flows to collocated firms, will also render new R&D investments less attractive to firms wishing to benefit from knowledge spillovers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Technology Leaders Deter Inward R&D Investments? Evidence from Regional R&D Location Decisions in Europe

Belderbos

Somers

2015

SSRN Journal

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Leading technology intensive firms have incentives to protect knowledge outflows to collocated firms in order to enhance the returns to R&D (Alcácer and Zhao, 2012). In this paper we argue that leading firms' knowledge protection strategies are likely to discourage other firms from setting up new R&D establishments in their vicinity. Knowledge protection is facilitated by an R&D organization emphasizing internal knowledge flows drawing on complementary contributions by dispersed R&D units. We examine whether the presence and R&D organization of local technology leaders discourages inward R&D investments in an analysis of the (NUTS-1) regional location of 196 cross-border R&D investment projects in EU-15 countries during [2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. While the strength of the local relevant technology clusters attracts inward R&D investments, investors are generally discouraged by the concentration of technology activities due to the presence of regional technology leaders in the industry. This discouraging effect occurs specifically in case the leaders exhibit an internally oriented R&D organization drawing on cross-border intra-firm knowledge flows in their technology development activities. Our study challenges the common notion in the literature on clusters and innovation that agglomeration is generally associated with greater knowledge spillovers.

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“…Patents grant their owners (usually the employer of the inventor) a time-limited right to prevent others from using a given technology. Consequently, they restrict the amount of knowledge that an inventor can effectively use following a move to a new employer (Kim and Marschke, 2005;Agarwal et al, 2009). Furthermore, by conferring monopoly power over a given technology, patent rights increase the value of retaining the creators of that technology in the implementation phase.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Patent Protection on Inventor Mobility

2017

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This paper investigates the effect of obtaining a patent on the mobility of employee inventors who are at the beginning of their careers. We suggest that patents make human capital more specific to the employer. As a result, we expect that patenting leads to lower levels of mobility. We draw on U.S. patent application data for the period 2001-2012 to analyze this issue. Using average examiner leniency as an exogenous source of variation in granted patents, we find that one additional patent granted decreases inventor mobility by approximately 25 percent. The estimated negative effect is nearly twice as large for discrete technologies (chemicals and pharmaceuticals) for which patent effectiveness is greater. The effect is also more pronounced in cases where the inventor's knowledge can be independently transferred (e.g., inventors with few co-authors) and for moves concerning technologically similar employers. The results have implications for the effect of patents on knowledge diffusion. ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the effect of obtaining a patent on the mobility of employee inventors who are at the beginning of their careers. We suggest that patents make human capital more specific to the employer. As a result, we expect that patenting leads to lower levels of mobility. We draw on U.S. patent application data for the period 2001-2012 to analyze this issue. Using average examiner leniency as an exogenous source of variation in granted patents, we find that one additional patent granted decreases inventor mobility by approximately 25 percent. The estimated negative effect is nearly twice as large for discrete technologies (chemicals and pharmaceuticals) for which patent effectiveness is greater. The effect is also more pronounced in cases where the inventor's knowledge can be independently transferred (e.g., inventors with few co-authors) and for moves concerning technologically similar employers. The results have implications for the effect of patents on knowledge diffusion.

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Reputations for Toughness in Patent Enforcement: Implications for Knowledge Spillovers via Inventor Mobility

Cited by 60 publications

References 100 publications

Innovation Outcomes in a Distributed Organization: Intrafirm Mobility and Access to Resources

Innovation Outcomes in a Distributed Organization: Intrafirm Mobility and Access to Resources

Do Technology Leaders Deter Inward R&D Investments? Evidence from Regional R&D Location Decisions in Europe

The Effect of Patent Protection on Inventor Mobility

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