Patents as a Competitive Advantage? Analysis of the German Watch Manufacturer Junghans

Katharina Stolz ()
Additional contact information
Katharina Stolz: University of Stuttgart, Innovation and Service Management (PhD student), Germany

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2021, vol. 18, issue 03, 1-24

Abstract: This paper investigates the relevance of patents as a competitive advantage with regard to the luxury industry. Within the framework of an explorative research design, more than two thousand patents were analyzed, using the international patent classification (IPC) to cluster those patents. The analysis shows that the sole ownership of patents as a resource is not sufficient to achieve business success. In addition, the findings suggest a two-sided relevance of patents within the luxury goods industry as two main groups can be identified: First, traditional manufacturers focusing more on craftmanship, secrecy, and tradition than on novelties and patents. Second, large business groups and high technology businesses dominating the IPC group G04 and emphasizing on the latest technology as well as on patents. Furthermore, the internationalization is also reflected in the patent applications: European patents within category G04 have gained in importance over the last 20 years, while national patents have declined.

Keywords: competitive advantage; dominant design; innovation; international patent classification; luxury; patent analysis; resource-based view; technology; watch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219877021500085
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:ijitmx:v:18:y:2021:i:03:n:s0219877021500085

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219877021500085

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) is currently edited by H K Tang

More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().