What drives patent performance of German biotech firms? The impact of R&D subsidies, knowledge networks and their location

Dirk Fornahl (), Tom Broekel () and Ron Boschma ()

No 1009, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: This paper aims to explain whether firm-specific features, their engagement in collaboration networks and their location influence patent activity of biotech firms in Germany in the period 1997-2004. First, we demonstrate that non-collaborative R&D subsidies do not increase patent intensity of biotech firms. Second, the number of knowledge links biotech firms is also not influencing their patent performance. However, strong and robust evidence is found that some but not too much cognitive distance between actors involved in R&D collaborations increases patent performance of firms. Third, being located in a biotech cluster does positively impact on patent performance.

Keywords: relatedness; R&D subsidies; biotechnology; knowledge networks; proximity paradox (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 O38 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2010-08, Revised 2010-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-com, nep-cse, nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-ind, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-knm, nep-net, nep-ppm, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Journal Article: What drives patent performance of German biotech firms? The impact of R&D subsidies, knowledge networks and their location (2011)
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