IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9735.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Appropriability and the timing of innovation: Evidence from MIT inventions

Author

Listed:
  • Emmanuel Dechenaux
  • Brent Goldfarb
  • Scott A. Shane
  • Marie C. Thursby

Abstract

At least since Arrow (1962), the effects of appropriability on invention have been well studied, but there has been little analysis of the effect of appropriability on the commercialization of existing inventions. Exploiting a database of 805 attempts by private firms to commercialize inventions licensed from MIT between 1980 and 1996, we explore the influence of several appropriability mechanisms on the commercialization and termination of projects to develop products based on university inventions. Our central hypothesis is that the relationship between a licensee's decision to either terminate or commercialize the invention is driven by the current market value of the invention, as well as the option value of delaying its commercialization. We use a competing risks framework that allows for non- parametric heterogeneity and correlated risks. We find that better appropriability in the sense of more effective patent strength and secrecy has a strong negative effect on the hazard of license termination. The effectiveness of learning has a strong positive effect on the hazard of technology commercialization, while lead time has a negative effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanuel Dechenaux & Brent Goldfarb & Scott A. Shane & Marie C. Thursby, 2003. "Appropriability and the timing of innovation: Evidence from MIT inventions," NBER Working Papers 9735, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9735
    Note: PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9735.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Jensen, 2003. "Innovative leadership: First-mover advantages in new product adoption," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 21(1), pages 97-116, January.
    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. C. Praag & Peter Versloot, 2007. "What is the value of entrepreneurship? A review of recent research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 351-382, December.
    2. Buenstorf, Guido & Schacht, Alexander, 2013. "We need to talk – or do we? Geographic distance and the commercialization of technologies from public research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 465-480.
    3. Robert A. Lowe & Arvids A. Ziedonis, 2006. "Overoptimism and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 173-186, February.
    4. Melita Nicotra & Marco Romano & Manlio Giudice & Carmela Elita Schillaci, 2018. "The causal relation between entrepreneurial ecosystem and productive entrepreneurship: a measurement framework," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 640-673, June.
    5. Veugelers, Reinhilde & Cassiman, Bruno, 2005. "R&D cooperation between firms and universities. Some empirical evidence from Belgian manufacturing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 355-379, June.
    6. InÉs Macho‐Stadler & David Pérez‐Castrillo & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2008. "Designing Contracts for University Spin‐offs," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 185-218, March.
    7. Murat F. Iyigun & X. Maggie Chen, 2004. "Strategic R&D Delays Generate Market Power," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 213, Econometric Society.
    8. Macho-Stadler, Ines & Perez-Castrillo, David & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2007. "Licensing of university inventions: The role of a technology transfer office," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 483-510, June.
    9. Joshua S. Gans & David H. Hsu & Scott Stern, 2008. "The Impact of Uncertain Intellectual Property Rights on the Market for Ideas: Evidence from Patent Grant Delays," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 982-997, May.
    10. Rothaermel, Frank T. & Thursby, Marie, 2005. "Incubator firm failure or graduation?: The role of university linkages," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1076-1090, September.
    11. Elfenbein, Daniel W., 2007. "Publications, patents, and the market for university inventions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 688-715, August.
    12. Debackere, Koenraad & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2005. "The role of academic technology transfer organizations in improving industry science links," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 321-342, April.
    13. Nicola Lacetera, 2009. "Academic entrepreneurship," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 443-464.
    14. Alexander Schacht, 2012. "Commercializing inventions from public research: Does speed matter?," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-026, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.

    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. Vedel, Suzanne Elizabeth & Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark & Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl, 2009. "First-movers, non-movers, and social gains from subsidising entry in markets for nature-based recreational goods," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2363-2371, June.
    2. Sabatier, Mareva & Chollet, Barthélemy, 2017. "Is there a first mover advantage in science? Pioneering behavior and scientific production in nanotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 522-533.
    3. Miller, David A., 2008. "Invention under uncertainty and the threat of ex post entry," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 387-412, April.
    4. Zach, Florian J. & Nicolau, Juan L. & Sharma, Abhinav, 2020. "Disruptive innovation, innovation adoption and incumbent market value: The case of Airbnb," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Fumio Teramae & Tomohiro Makino & Shintaro Sengoku & Yeongjoo Lim & Takashi Natori & Kota Kodama, 2020. "Research on Pharmaceutical Product Life Cycle Patterns for Sustainable Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Emmanuel Dechenaux & Brent Goldfarb & Scott Shane & Marie Thursby, 2008. "Appropriability and Commercialization: Evidence from MIT Inventions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 893-906, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nbr:nberwo:9735. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.