Research on Markets for Inventions and Implications for R&D Allocation Strategies

Abstract

This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. is, the trade of elements of knowledge which are 'disembodied' from individuals, organizations and products. The aims of this paper are to bring together the various streams of research in this area and discuss their major assumptions and limitations, in order to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the phenomenon, and identify promising paths for future research. We start our review by identifying the object of market exchange -that is, an invention whose knowledge has been codified and disembodied from individuals, organizations or artifacts. We then identify those factors that enable firms to trade inventions, distinguishing between institutional-, firm-, and industry-level factors. We close our analysis of the extant literature by discussing the implications of markets for inventions for firm behavior and performance. Against this background, we highlight an important avenue for future research. A neglected implication of the development of invention markets is that firms are confronted with a wide variety of technological paths from which to choose, because the opportunity to acquire technologies on the market offers them a greater variety that can their internal R&D departments. However, the streams of research on markets for inventions and on R&D allocation strategies have been surprisingly disconnected so far. Hence, in the final section, we start to establish and explore the link between these literatures, and to identify a research agenda in this domain. Permanent repository link3

Which industries are served by online marketplaces for technology?

“…Online platform facilitate access to previously neglected parties (e.g., Brynjolfsson, Hu, & Simester, 2011;Brynjolfsson, Hu, & Smith, 2006 (Brews & Tucci, 2004;Zollo & Winter, 2002;Conti et al, 2013;Danneels, 2007).…”

“…Prior work indicates that inventions can be codified and "disembodied" from the original inventor so that development and commercialization are not limited to the inventing person or company (Conti et al, 2013). Accordingly, a market for technology may emerge in which participants with new technologies interact with participants who can commercialize the technologies and exchange inventions for a price (Arora et al, 2001).…”

“…An important prerequisite to exploring the full range of applications for a technology lies in understanding the underlying characteristics and functionality of a technology and de-linking the technology from its existing applications and organizational context (Danneels, 2002;Grégoire & Shepherd, 2012). This result is achieved through the codification process of online markets by technology owners, who need to emphasize fundamental standalone features independent of the technology's existing application (Conti et al, 2013;Danneels, 2007). De-linking technological solutions from applications in online markets has noteworthy implications.…”

“…The result is a large body of work investigating a broad range of issues important for the market for technology. These issues include factors driving inventors' participation in these markets (e.g., Bercovitz & Feldman, 2007;Ceccagnoli & Jiang, 2013;Conti, Gambardella, & Novelli, 2013;Fosfuri, 2006), the way in which the exchange is organized (e.g., Arora, Fosfuri, & Rønde, 2013;Laursen & Salter, 2006;Leone & Reichstein, 2012), and institutions supporting the market for technology (Lamoreaux & Sokoloff, 2003;Zhang & Li, 2010).…”

Determinants, causal connections and outcomes of corporate technology licensing: a systematic review and research agenda

“…High‐tech industries such as chemicals, electronics and software have seen a proliferation of small, specialist technology producers which operate upstream and license their technologies in MfT (Arora et al, ,b; Hall and Ziedonis, ; Di Stefano, ). Larger firms have also relied significantly on external sources of knowledge in order to gain access to new technologies and enhance their performance (Cohen and Levinthal, ; Tripsas, ; Rivette and Kline, ; Chesbrough et al, ; Conti et al, ; Rønde, ) . As a result, a distinct literature focusing specifically on technology licensing in MfT has emerged (Gambardella and Arora, ).…”