Determinants of patent quality in U.S. manufacturing: technological diversity, appropriability, and firm size

Burak Dindaroglu

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2018, vol. 43, issue 4, No 12, 1083-1106

Abstract: Abstract We study the determinants of patent quality for a panel of U.S. manufacturing firms, focusing mainly on the effects of firm-level technological diversity and appropriability conditions. Technological diversity increases the quality-adjusted patent count on most of the diversity distribution, but its relationship with average patent quality is an inverted-U. We find that appropriability conditions (proxied by the rate of self-citations at the firm level) have similar, non-linear effects on both the average quality of patents, and quality-adjusted patents per R&D, which is consistent with an inverted-U pattern. Firm size has no effect on the average quality of patented innovation at the firm level. Finally, as R&D intensity increases, the rate of corporate innovation falls, but its average quality increases, indicating a quality–quantity trade-off in R&D.

Keywords: Innovation quality; Technological diversity; Appropriability; Firm size; Patents; Citations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L25 O30 O31 O32 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10961-017-9587-7

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