Patents: Means to Innovation or Strategic Ends?
| Author: | Bc. Martin Štěpánek |
|---|---|
| Year: | 2012 - summer |
| Leaders: | PhDr. Jiří Schwarz Ph.D. |
| Consultants: | |
| Work type: | Bachelors |
| Language: | English |
| Pages: | 84 |
| Awards and prizes: | |
| Link: | |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes an extensive dataset of 163,663 US patents granted between 1976 and 2011 to 25 companies within four technological fields (aerospace industry, computer manufacturing, semiconductor industry, and software development), to observe fluctuations in their value and characteristics. I find that certain indicators have changed immensely during the last 36 years, suggesting that newer patents are much less valuable than their predecessors. Further, using Data Envelopment Analysis, I estimate relative production efficiency of transformation of inputs (research and development expenses and company’s workforce) into outputs (patent stock and its technological importance), to provide an empirical evidence for the recent theories of strategical patent exploitation by large companies. I find that the efficiency varies considerably for different industries and also for the companies within an industry. There is an overall trend of increasing efficiency in patent production per unit of input, but there is none in the effectiveness of creating valuable inventions, which seems to depend only on the company itself. |
| Downloadable: | Bachelor Theses of Stepanek |
