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Book part
Publication date: 12 September 2022

Bill B. Francis, Iftekhar Hasan and Gokhan Yilmaz

This chapter investigates whether core competence of managers and their expansive (vs. specialized) managerial style affects firms' innovative ability, capacity, and efficiency…

Abstract

This chapter investigates whether core competence of managers and their expansive (vs. specialized) managerial style affects firms' innovative ability, capacity, and efficiency. Using exogenous CEO departures as a natural experiment, it establishes a causal link between managerial capability and innovation. Importantly, it reveals that firms with talented managers receive significantly more nonself citations; make significantly lower self-citations and lesser citations to the others, indicating novel and explorative innovation achievements. Also, managers with higher general (specialized) ability are cited more (less) by patents from a wider range of fields. Lastly, career concern is identified as a mechanism linking higher ability and innovation.

Details

Empirical Research in Banking and Corporate Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-397-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2011

Matti Karvonen and Tuomo Kässi

Fusion of new technologies and convergence has led to the emergence of new industries. This paper aims to present experiences of the concept of convergence from a patent citation

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Abstract

Purpose

Fusion of new technologies and convergence has led to the emergence of new industries. This paper aims to present experiences of the concept of convergence from a patent citation analysis viewpoint. The main objective of the paper is to develop a tool for anticipating the emerging new industry segments.

Design/methodology/approach

The patent analysis methods have been used to get an idea of the stage of new industry segment in the intersection of the paper and electronics industries. The authors distinguish self‐citations from external citations, and further divide citations into two groups: within the industry and beyond the industry. Backward citations are used to evaluate the spill‐overs between industries and forward citations are used to evaluate the significance of technology‐based industry transformation.

Findings

The recognized trends of the trajectory changes and growing overlaps of technological fields show indications for possible convergence between industries. Differentiating between external and self‐citations within and beyond industry citations helps to provide more comprehensive prospects of a future technology competitive environment.

Research limitations/implications

This study evaluated technology development in converging environments. It would be a scientifically significant contribution if the novel patent analysis methods could be used effectively for creating understanding in advance about the technology development and industry convergences.

Originality/value

The presented patent citation methodology provides new insights into the analysis of industry evolution, technological innovations and business development related to converging industries and technologies.

Article
Publication date: 20 April 2015

Philippe Gugler and Laura Vanoli

The purpose of this paper is to focus on Chinese firms’ innovation processes that are induced by foreign direct investment abroad. The study uses a patent and citation analysis to…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on Chinese firms’ innovation processes that are induced by foreign direct investment abroad. The study uses a patent and citation analysis to examine the extent to which investments abroad contribute to enhancing these firms’ innovative capabilities. More specifically, this study focusses on the role of foreign location competitiveness as an asset to provide technological capabilities to Chinese affiliates.

Design/methodology/approach

Patents are good indicators of firms’ innovative capabilities. Moreover, patents allow to track the inter-firm knowledge transfer through the citations of patents on which they are based. The authors use an OECD patent database called “OECD REGPAT July 2013” that compiles patents registered with the European Patent Office (EPO) over the period from 1986 to 2013. The authors focus the analysis on patents registered by Chinese multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) based in Europe because the authors assume inter alia that innovations patented by Chinese affiliates in Europe are registered with the EPO. The sample comprises 3,010 patents involving 5,749 citations that the authors have individually examined.

Findings

The findings suggest that Chinese MNEs ability to generate innovation based on their own knowledge is low, with a self-citation rate of approximately 4 percent. Patents by Chinese MNEs are largely based on foreign patents, especially from developed economies (at least 90 percent). The citation analysis also suggests that 39.2 percent of citations represent domestic firms in the local recipient country. This subgroup of citations is categorized as follows: 1.04 percent are M&A linkages, 13.8 percent are cluster linkages, and 24.36 percent are localization linkages. The remaining 60.8 percent of the total sample demonstrates that firms do not necessarily need to be collocated in foreign locations with domestic firms to exchange assets.

Research limitations/implications

Patent and citation analysis considers only a part of the inter-firm knowledge diffusion. Some innovations are not patented and tacit knowledge diffusion is not observable. Moreover, the analysis focusses only on Chinese outward foreign direct investment to Europe, but a large part of knowledge is accumulated in China thanks to inward foreign direct investment.

Originality/value

Many scholars have scrutinized emerging markets multinational enterprises’ strategic asset-seeking investments abroad that are designed to upgrade the companies’ technological capabilities (Cui and Jiang, 2009; Zhang and Filippov, 2009; Huang and Wang, 2013; Amighini et al., 2014; De Beule et al., 2014; Nicolas, 2014). However, few studies analyze the results of these strategies in terms of innovation output.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1976

C.V. CLARK

Patents deserve bibliometric study both for their own sake and because their formality can be exploited. Here the year by year issue of US patents since 1836 is used to correct…

Abstract

Patents deserve bibliometric study both for their own sake and because their formality can be exploited. Here the year by year issue of US patents since 1836 is used to correct for growth their apparent aging, as obtained by a synchronous study of citations made by (a) US patent examiners and (b) periodicals. Apparent and corrected aging are treated in terms of conditional probabilities. In (a), whereas the recent apparent aging of chemical patents is much faster than that of the whole, after correction the rates are very close. Using a very broad (trichotomous) subject classification, no cut‐off dates for novelty searches can be established if total recall is the goal. The strictly retrospective method of such searches is invoked to explain why a linearity found here in one type of corrected aging function has also been found for a search file truncated at 1920. In (b) the now classic exponential form of aging applies back to the twenties, but older patents are cited too frequently to conform. The deviation is graphically even more striking after correction for growth and is probably due to citations made for historical purposes.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1996

G. Scott Erickson

Patent citation statistics, used to measure the technological standing of firms and nations, uniquely suggest that the quality of Japanese technological output is superior to that…

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Abstract

Patent citation statistics, used to measure the technological standing of firms and nations, uniquely suggest that the quality of Japanese technological output is superior to that of the USA. This study explores whether there is something in Japanese citation practices which may inflate citation ratings without any underlying technological superiority. Using telecommunications equipment industry patent citation data, suggests that Japanese companies do appear to cross‐cite one another’s patents much more heavily than is the practice among their North American or European competitors.

Details

Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1351-3036

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 September 2021

Hirokazu Yamada

This study aims to find technologically important patent identification methods and indicators early and efficiently to grasp the technical qualitative level of patents, which are…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to find technologically important patent identification methods and indicators early and efficiently to grasp the technical qualitative level of patents, which are output indicators of research and development (R&D) results.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reports on two methods for distinguishing important patents and the indicators obtained from those methods. One of the discrimination methods is Heckman's two-step estimation procedure. The second method is to find the centrality of each patent by network analysis of the citation relationship between publications and to find the importance from the magnitude of the centrality value.

Findings

In Heckman's analysis, the number of citations within three years after publication and the applicant's right acquisition/maintenance motivation index had positive effects on patent importance. The discriminative indicators of important patents by network analysis were degree centrality, mediation centrality, proximity centrality and transit values in the aggregated subnetworks. These two analytical methods are in a relationship that can complement each other's shortcomings. To efficiently evaluate the qualitative importance of patents, it is recommended to use these two methods together.

Research limitations/implications

The indicators of important technical patents might change depending on the technical field. Future studies can apply this research to multiple technical fields to improve robustness and to construct an algorithm that can efficiently evaluate the quality of patents.

Practical implications

This study's results can be useful for grasping the patent position of the company or competitors numerically and for quantitatively evaluating the quality of R&D activities. Furthermore, it is possible to streamline the routine for an exploratory search of a huge number of patents. For example, it could be useful for detecting changes in the paradigm of specific technical knowledge, evolving the genealogy of technical knowledge and creating patent maps for new R&D. These methods greatly increase the effectiveness of technical knowledge information, which is the basis of R&D. In addition, the results of this study can help in evaluating patented assets.

Social implications

This study confirmed the development process of technical knowledge. It is a fact that sharing, sympathy and mutual trust for technical issues and technical values are created among professional engineers and researchers inside and outside the organization, and their preferences and interactions develop and expand technical knowledge. Understanding the process of development and the evolution of this technical knowledge gives hints, such as expanding the discretionary power of engineers and researchers regarding corporate secrets, or reviewing the balance between control and independence, to solve Japanese management problems, which are often closed and monetized in R&D activities.

Originality/value

This study presents a scoring of the technical significance of patents by combining the two analytical methods. In addition, there are proposals as a method for detecting changes in the genealogy and paradigm of technical knowledge. As an analysis method, it is a new proposal that has never existed before.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 40 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1978

P. ELLIS, G. HEPBURN and C. OPPENHEIN

Work is described on patent citation networks, a novel technique for displaying the history of technological subjects and their key turning points. The method accurately…

Abstract

Work is described on patent citation networks, a novel technique for displaying the history of technological subjects and their key turning points. The method accurately identifies the key patents in a subject field, and if a subject docs not have a definite starting point, this is reflected in the patent network. The networks are less satisfactory if the key patent took a long time to appear in print. Subjects studied were: semi‐synthetic penicillins, tobacco substitutes, electrophotography, Ziegler‐Natta catalysis, and hovercraft. Possible uses of the technique are examined.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 April 2021

Björn Hammarfelt

In this article, the ideas and methods behind the “patent-paper citation” are scrutinised by following the intellectual and technical development of approaches and ideas in early…

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Abstract

Purpose

In this article, the ideas and methods behind the “patent-paper citation” are scrutinised by following the intellectual and technical development of approaches and ideas in early work on patentometrics. The aim is to study how references from patents to papers came to play a crucial role in establishing a link between science and technology.

Design/methodology/approach

The study comprises a conceptual history of the “patent paper citationand its emergence as an important indicator of science and technology interaction. By tracing key references in the field, it analyses the overarching frameworks and ideas, the conceptual “hinterland”, in which the approach of studying patent references emerged.

Findings

The analysis explains how interest in patents – not only as legal and economic artefacts but also as scientific documents – became evident in the 1980s. The focus on patent citations was sparked by a need for relevant and objective indicators and by the greater availability of databases and methods. Yet, the development of patentometrics also relied on earlier research, and established theories, on the relation between science and technology.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt at situating patentometrics in a larger societal and scientific context. The paper offers a reflexive and nuanced analysis of the “patent-paper citation” as a theoretical and historical construct, and it calls for a broader and contextualised understanding of patent references, including their social, legal and rhetorical function.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 77 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 October 2020

Elmira Janavi and Maryam Emami

The goal of this study was to investigate the co-citation of information security patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database.

Abstract

Purpose

The goal of this study was to investigate the co-citation of information security patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is a scientometrics study that has been conducted using the co-citation analysis. The statistical population of the present study includes all patents of information security filed in the USPTO database from 1971 to 2015. As a result of this search, 30,736 patents were retrieved. In this investigation, UCINET software and its complementary package (NetDraw) were employed to plot scientific maps.

Findings

The findings of this study indicated an upward trend of patents in the field of information security between 1971 and 2015. The “California State” has the top world rank in information security inventions, followed by “Japan” and the “Washington State.” “VAN WIE, DAVID M” is the most cited inventor in the field of information security. The analysis of inventors' co-citation data indicated that “ADAMS, NEIL- LITTLE” and “HERBERT ANTHONY” had the highest co-citation rates with each other and were ranked first. The survey of high-citation inventors based on centrality indices indicated that “LEACH, PAUL J” graded first in degree centrality, “BENALOH, JOSH D” in betweenness centrality and “BENALOH, JOSH D” in closeness centrality.

Originality/value

The co-citation analysis of patents can show the most important patents and the relationships between them. Such analyses can be useful for large-scale policymaking or identification of existing gaps and attempting to address them.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 39 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2015

Vigdis Boasson and Emil Boasson

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of geographic location of research-intensive firms in the ability to generate new research and products, which consequently…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of geographic location of research-intensive firms in the ability to generate new research and products, which consequently affects firm value.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct the empirical study following a three-step process. First, if pharmaceutical firms are more likely to cite the patents of other firms and other innovators that are nearby, as opposed to firms and other innovators that are far away, then location (i.e. close proximity) is likely important when it comes to the ability to learn and to use the knowledge being generated by other innovators. The authors employ a “geographic information systems” (GIS) and geo-code each pair of citing and cited patents. In addition, the authors utilize spatial statistics such as Moran’s I to analyze the spatial clustering pattern of patent citations and knowledge flows. Next, the authors measure the pharmaceutical companies’ ability to generate useful patents as a function of the amount of innovation and industrial activity that is occurring close to them. Finally, the authors test whether a firm’s location relates to its firm value. Specifically, the authors model firm value as a function of its patents quality, but the authors also allow the firm’s patents quality to be a function of its location and locational attributes. In this way, the authors establish a link between location and firm value. Using a simultaneous system of equations, the authors find that location explains patent quality, which, in turn, explains firm value. In other words, there is a positive relationship between firm value, innovation and location.

Findings

In empirical tests using pharmaceutical firms and their patents, the authors first find that firms more often cite patents of other firms that are geographically closer to them than those firms that are farther away. The authors then find that a patent’s quality is a function of the firm’s near proximity to other knowledge-intensive institutions and activities. Finally, the authors find that because patent quality is a function of a firm’s geographic location, location consequently affects firm value.

Research limitations/implications

For knowledge-intensive firms, geographic location matters. More specifically, the authors contend that research-intensive firms are better able to use and to expand on existing knowledge when they are closer to other research-intensive enterprises. The implication is that firm value maximization involves a location factor.

Practical implications

The practical implication for investors is that investors should invest in those firms that are situated in a location that is rich in geographic innovation resources because those firms are more likely to generate more and higher quality patents or innovations.

Originality/value

The study is the first to establish the linkage among spatial knowledge diffusion, geographic drivers of innovation, and market valuation of the firm. The study is unique in that the authors not only present evidence on spatial knowledge flows by geo-coding the exact longitude and latitude location coordinates of citing and cited patens, but more importantly, the authors also identify geographic drivers of innovation, and examine their impacts on citation-weighted patent counts and knowledge stock. Finally, using a series of simultaneous equations, the authors show how geographic innovation resources positively affect citation-weighted patent stock and knowledge stock and consequently affect market value of the firm. Thus, the novel approach contributes not only to the literature that measures geographic localization of knowledge flow using patent citations, but also to the literature that examines the impact of geographic sources of innovations on patent outputs and patent quality and, thus on firm value for research-intensive firms.

Details

China Finance Review International, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1398

Keywords

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