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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Marie-Laure Allain (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X); Emeric Henry (Sciences Po - Department of Economics); Margaret Kyle (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - Toulouse School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The sale of ideas (e.g. through licensing) facilitates vertical specialization and the division of labor between research and development. This specialization can improve the overall efficiency of the innovative process. However, these gains depend on the timing of the sale: the buyer of an idea should assume development at the stage at which he has an efficiency advantage. We show that in an environment with asymmetric information about the value of the idea and where this asymmetry decreases as the product is developed, the seller of the idea may delay the sale to the more efficient firm, thus incurring higher development costs. We obtain a condition for the equilibrium timing of the sale and examine how factors such as the intensity of competition between potential buyers influence it. Empirical analysis of licensing contracts signed between firms in the pharmaceutical industry supports our theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Licensing, Market structure, Bargaining, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology. |
| Date: | 2011–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00639128&r=ipr |
| By: | Jose Polo; Néstor Duch; Martà Parellada |
| Abstract: | In this paper we empirically analyze the effects of collaboration in innovation with universities on the firm’s innovative performance. Using data from the Technological Innovation Panel dataset (PITEC for its acronym in Spanish) we have constructed a database of 4643 innovative firms in Spain, where we estimate the impact of different types of collaborative partnerships on the increments on firm’s range and quality of products, and on the improvements of the firm’s production capacity and flexibility. The estimation from an ordered logit model shows that firms collaborating actively with universities, as well as, firms that use universities as their principal source of information are more prone to have product and process additionalities, while subcontracting specific R&D activities to universities do not seem to affect the firm’s innovative performance. A sensitive analysis shows that firms belonging to manufacturing sectors benefit more from the collaboration with universities than firms from services sectors. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p671&r=ipr |
| By: | Edward Bergman |
| Abstract: | European universities have lost--and partially regained--key research academics to North American and other attractive university systems. EU efforts to reverse the cycle revolve around the establishment of an attractive European Research Area, within which future academic mobility--and commercial knowledge transmission--might be confined. This paper draws upon a survey of 1800 academics in 200 of Europe's most research-intensive universities to understand the principal reasons that underlie contemporary academic mobility. Mobility is conceptualised in Hirschmann terms as 'exit' from an inadequately performing university, rather than remaining 'loyal' to its existing regime or staying to exercise 'voice' in bringing about necessary improvements. The results from logit modeling of choices and options indicate clearly that academics who evidence either 'loyalty' or 'voice' are significantly less likely to be mobile. Moreover, those who are mobile refuse to restrict possible destinations to the ERA if they value better material conditions or better quality of colleagues, students or university reputation. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p1134&r=ipr |
| By: | Harvey Goldstein; Edward Bergman; Gunther Maier |
| Abstract: | University researchers are now considered by many as key actors in the building of knowledge economies in their regions, as universities are assumed to be important engines of regional economic well-being. Yet within the academy not all faculty are accepting of these roles for their institutions, for a variety of reasons. We measure faculty attitudes towards their universities being involved in (a) assisting regional economic development and (b) the commercialization of knowledge more generally using web-based surveys. Then using secondary data from a variety of sources, we attempt to explain the variation in attitudes among faculty in terms of: (i) individual attributes and professional experiences, (ii) scholarly disciplinary of the faculty member, (iii) institutional characteristics of their respective university, and (iv) regional economic conditions. Using ordered logit models, we test to see if faculty view a distinction in appropriateness of universities assisting economic development versus appropriateness of the commercialization of knowledge, whether there are differences between U.S. and EU faculty in their attitudes towards each type of activity, and whether faculty in regions undergoing industrial restructuring or in economic distress have more favorable attitudes towards each activity. Results to-date indicate that faculty have more favorable attitudes towards their universities assisting regional economic development compared to commercialization of knowledge, that universities individual and disciplinary variables are more important than institutional and regional economic variables, and that there are strong similarities in attitudes between U.S. and EU faculty attitudes, but with a few interesting exceptions. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p301&r=ipr |