What do patent-based measures tell us about product commercialization? Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry
Stefan Wagner and
Simon Wakeman ()
Research Policy, 2016, vol. 45, issue 5, 1091-1102
Abstract:
Patent-based measures are frequently used as indicators in empirical research on innovation and technological change. Currently, there is little evidence as to what extent patent-based indicators relate to product market outcomes. Using a unique dataset that links outcomes from product commercialization in the pharmaceutical industry with detailed patent data, we relate patent-based indicators that capture either an invention's value or the uncertainty surrounding the patenting process to the outcomes of the product development process. Our findings suggest that the speed of commercialization increases with value but reduces with uncertainty. Using a variety of alternative indicators we derive implications for the use and the proper interpretation of individual measures. Moreover, our study has broader implications as it highlights the detrimental effect of uncertainty on the speed of innovation.
Keywords: Patent indicators; Patent system; Product commercialization; Pharmaceutical industry; Drug development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733316300191
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
Working Paper: What do patent-based measures tell us about product commercialization? Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry (2015) 
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:eee:respol:v:45:y:2016:i:5:p:1091-1102
DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2016.02.006
Access Statistics for this article
Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray
More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().