IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v223y2012i2p441-451.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patent-investment games under asymmetric information

Author

Listed:
  • Leung, Chi Man
  • Kwok, Yue Kuen

Abstract

This paper analyzes preemptive patenting in a two-stage real options game where an incumbent firm competes with a potential entrant firm for the patent of a substitute product in a product market with profit flow uncertainty. The incumbent suffers loss of monopoly in the product market if the entrant acquires the patent of a substitute product and later commercializes the product. Our patent-investment game model assumes that the entrant has complete information on the incumbent’s commercialization cost while the incumbent only knows the distribution of the entrant’s cost. We investigate the impact of information asymmetry on the preemption strategies adopted by the two competing firms on patenting the substitute product by comparing the optimal preemption strategies and the real option value functions of the two competing firms under complete information and information asymmetry. Our analysis reveals that the informationally disadvantaged incumbent always suffers from loss in its real option value of investment since it tends to act more aggressively in competing for the patent. On the other hand, the real option value of investment of the informationally advantaged entrant may be undermined or enhanced. The incumbent’s aggressive response under information asymmetry may lead to reversal of winner in the patent race. We also examine how information asymmetry may affect the occurrence of sleeping patent and the corresponding expected duration between the two stages of patenting and product commercialization.

Suggested Citation

  • Leung, Chi Man & Kwok, Yue Kuen, 2012. "Patent-investment games under asymmetric information," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 441-451.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:223:y:2012:i:2:p:441-451
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2012.06.033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221712004882
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2012.06.033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Drew Fudenberg & David Levine, 2008. "Limit Games and Limit Equilibria," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Drew Fudenberg & David K Levine (ed.), A Long-Run Collaboration On Long-Run Games, chapter 2, pages 21-39, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Jacco Thijssen & Kuno Huisman & Peter Kort, 2006. "The effects of information on strategic investment and welfare," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 28(2), pages 399-424, June.
    3. Lambrecht, Bart & Perraudin, William, 2003. "Real options and preemption under incomplete information," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 619-643, February.
    4. Harris, Christopher J & Vickers, John S, 1985. "Patent Races and the Persistence of Monopoly," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 461-481, June.
    5. Gilbert, Richard J & Newbery, David M G, 1982. "Preemptive Patenting and the Persistence of Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 514-526, June.
    6. Yao-Wen Hsu & Bart Lambrecht, 2007. "Preemptive patenting under uncertainty and asymmetric information," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 5-28, April.
    7. Chi Leung & Yue Kwok, 2011. "Real options game analysis of sleeping patents," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 34(1), pages 41-65, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jou, Jyh-Bang, 2018. "R&D investment and patent renewal decisions," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 144-154.
    2. Alcino Azevedo & Dean Paxson, 2018. "Rivalry and uncertainty in complementary investments with dynamic market sharing," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 271(2), pages 319-355, December.
    3. Cui, Xue & Shibata, Takashi, 2017. "Investment strategies, reversibility, and asymmetric information," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(3), pages 1109-1122.
    4. Dutang, Christophe & Albrecher, Hansjoerg & Loisel, Stéphane, 2013. "Competition among non-life insurers under solvency constraints: A game-theoretic approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(3), pages 702-711.
    5. Azevedo, Alcino & Paxson, Dean, 2014. "Developing real option game models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(3), pages 909-920.
    6. Trigeorgis, Lenos & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E., 2018. "Real Options in Operations Research: A Review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(1), pages 1-24.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jou, Jyh-Bang, 2018. "R&D investment and patent renewal decisions," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 144-154.
    2. Boyarchenko, Svetlana & Levendorskiĭ, Sergei, 2014. "Preemption games under Lévy uncertainty," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 354-380.
    3. Chi Leung & Yue Kwok, 2011. "Real options game analysis of sleeping patents," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 34(1), pages 41-65, May.
    4. Chevalier-Roignant, Benoît & Flath, Christoph M. & Huchzermeier, Arnd & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2011. "Strategic investment under uncertainty: A synthesis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(3), pages 639-650, December.
    5. Graham, Jeffrey, 2011. "Strategic real options under asymmetric information," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 922-934, June.
    6. Yao-Wen Hsu & Bart Lambrecht, 2007. "Preemptive patenting under uncertainty and asymmetric information," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 5-28, April.
    7. Jeon, Haejun, 2015. "Patent infringement, litigation, and settlement," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 99-111.
    8. Pablo Moran, 2017. "Information Revelation in Merger Waves," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(2), pages 174-233.
    9. Hamid Beladi & Arijit Mukherjee, 2022. "R&D competition and the persistence of technology leadership," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(3), pages 272-284, September.
    10. Ping Lin & Tianle Zhang & Wen Zhou, 2020. "Vertical integration and disruptive cross‐market R&D," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 51-73, January.
    11. Adriana Breccia, 2019. "R&D appropriability and market structure in a preemption model," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 1902, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    12. Nishihara, Michi & Fukushima, Masao, 2008. "Evaluation of firm's loss due to incomplete information in real investment decision," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 188(2), pages 569-585, July.
    13. Francis Bloch & Simona Fabrizi & Steffen Lippert, 2015. "Learning and collusion in new markets with uncertain entry costs," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 58(2), pages 273-303, February.
    14. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Kraft, Kornelius, 2004. "An empirical test of the asymmetric models on innovative activity: who invests more into R&D, the incumbent or the challenger?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 153-173, June.
    15. Karaaslan, Mehmet E., 2007. "Monopoly, Diversification through Adjacent Technologies, and Market Structure," MPRA Paper 7607, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Luo, Pengfei & Tian, Yuan & Yang, Zhaojun, 2020. "Real option duopolies with quasi-hyperbolic discounting," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    17. Arasteh, Abdollah, 2017. "Considering the investment decisions with real options games approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1282-1294.
    18. Boyer, Marcel & Lasserre, Pierre & Moreaux, Michel, 2012. "A dynamic duopoly investment game without commitment under uncertain market expansion," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 663-681.
    19. Luca Lambertini, 1998. "Process innovation and the persistence of monopoly with labour-managed firms," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 3(4), pages 359-369.
    20. Robin Kleer, 2009. "Acquisitions in a Patent Contest Model with Large and Small Firms," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 307-328, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:223:y:2012:i:2:p:441-451. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.