Measuring innovation in international business research: how can trademark data help?

Many of the debates around international business policy envision a key role for innovation. The empirical evidence feeding these debates relies, among other methods, on using innovation indicators. Several studies have exploited patent-based innovation indicators, while alternative indicators appear underexploited. In this commentary, I review the case for using trademark data to measure innovation, discussing emerging research on the validity of trademark-based indicators. The main intuition is that including such indicators in the innovation measurement toolbox allows capturing more types of innovation, happening in more firms and in more places. I outline both the case for and the case against embracing trademark-based indicators of innovation in international business research. To illustrate their potential, I discuss studies that already addressed international business research questions using trademarks and I offer examples of new research that could do so in the future, in three core research areas: (i) the global geography of innovation, (ii) cross-border activities and local innovation, (iii) MNE’s innovation and public policy. The ultimate goal here is to trigger curiosity and indicate possibilities, so that the community around this journal can further experiment with measuring innovation with trademark data.