Firm strategic behavior and the measurement of knowledge flows with patent citations

CITATION

Corsino, M., Mariani, M., & Torrisi, S. (2019). Firm strategic behavior and the measurement of knowledge flows with patent citations. Strategic Management Journal, 40(7), 1040-1069. doi:10.1002/smj.3016

For library access / research help in a similar topic: anyangoceline19@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Research Summary: This research addresses firms' use of
external knowledge sources to develop patented inventions
and explores the validity of patent citations as an
indicator of interfirm knowledge flows. By comparing patent
citations with primary data reported by the inventors,
we uncover systematic measurement errors in patent citations
and show that they depend on the firms' patent strategies
(e.g., to reduce the risk of imitation or litigation), the
source of knowledge employed (e.g., competitors, users),
the technology of the underlying invention, and the institutional
characteristics of the patent system. Our findings
about the role of these factors in external knowledge
sourcing and citing propensity highlight the importance of
firms' strategic behavior and offer novel insights for the
use of patent citations as an indicator of knowledge flows.
Managerial Summary: Firms' open innovation strategies
rely on the sourcing of knowledge from other organizations.
Tracing these knowledge flows is difficult, such that
the empirical research on this matter typically uses citations
that patents make to prior art in order to track them.
However, patent citations might be added also for reasons
other than the actual transfer of knowledge. We use primary
information from a large survey of inventors to
assess the accuracy of patent citations to measure knowledge
flows, and we find evidence of measurement errors
that depend on the applicants' patent strategies, the type of
knowledge sources used, the filing jurisdiction, and the
technology of the underlying invention. We offer insights
to evaluate the settings in which patent citations are a reliable
measure of knowledge flows.


REFERENCES
Agarwal, R., Ganco, M., & Ziedonis, R. (2009). Reputations for toughness in patent enforcement: Implications for knowledge spillovers
via inventor mobility.Strategic Management Journal, 30(13), 1349–1374.

Akers, N. (2000). The referencing of prior art documents in European patents and applications.World Patent Information, 22(4),
309–315.

Alcácer, J., & Gittelman, M. (2006). Patent citations as a measure of knowledge flows: The influence of examiner citations.The Review
of Economics and Statistics, 88(4), 774–779.

Alcácer, J., Gittelman, M., & Sampat, B. (2009). Applicant and examiner citations in U.S. patents: An overview and analysis.Research
Policy, 38(2), 415–427.

Allison, J. R., & Lemley, M. A. (1998). Empirical evidence on the validity of litigated patents.AIPLA Quarterly Journal, 26(3),
185–275.

Allison, J. R., Lemley, M. A., Moore, K. A., & Trunkey, R. D. (2004). Valuable patents.The Georgetown Law Journal, 92(3),
435–479.

Arora, A., Cohen, W. M., & Walsh, J. P. (2016). The acquisition and commercialization of invention in American manufacturing: Incidence
and impact.Research Policy, 45(6), 1113–1128.

Atal, V., & Bar, T. (2010). Prior art: To search or not to search.International Journal of Industrial Organization, 28(5), 507–521.

Baldwin, C., & von Hippel, E. (2011). Modeling a paradigm shift: From producer innovation to user and open collaborative innovation.
Organization Science, 22(6), 1399–1417.

Bettis, R. A., Helfat, C. E., & Shaver, J. M. (2016). The necessity, logic, and forms of replication.Strategic Management Journal, 37
(11), 2193–2203.

Chatterji, A. K., & Fabrizio, K. R. (2014). Using users: When does external knowledge enhance corporate product innovation?Strategic
Management Journal, 35(10), 1427–1445.

Chesbrough, H. (2003). Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston, MA: Harvard Business
School Press.

Coffano M, Tarasconi G. 2014. CRIOS–Patstat database: Sources, contents and access rules (CRIOS Working Paper No. 1). Milan,
Italy: Center for Research on Innovation, Organization and Strategy, Bocconi University. doi:https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.
2404344.

Cohen, W. M., Goto, A., Nagata, A., Nelson, R. R., & Walsh, J. P. (2002). R&D spillovers, patents and the incentives to innovate in
Japan and the United States.Research Policy, 31(8–9), 1349–1367.

Cohen, W. M., Nelson, R. R., & Walsh, J. P. (2002). Links and impacts: The influence of public research on industrial R&D.Management
Science, 48(1), 1–23.

Cotropia, C. A. (2009). Modernizing patent law's inequitable conduct doctrine.Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 24(2), 723–783.

Cotropia, C. A., Lemley, M. A., & Sampat, B. (2013). Do applicant patent citations matter?Research Policy, 42(4), 844–854.

Criscuolo, P., & Verspagen, B. (2008). Does it matter where patent citations come from? Inventor vs. examiner citations in European
patents.Research Policy, 37(10), 1892–1908.

Duguet, E., & MacGarvie, M. (2005). How well do patent citations measure flows of technology? Evidence from French innovation
surveys.Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 14(5), 375–393.

Guellec, D., Martinez, C., & Zuniga, P. (2012). Pre-emptive patenting: Securing market exclusion and freedom of operation.Economics
of Innovation and New Technology, 21(1), 1–29.

Hall, B. H., Jaffe, A., & Trajtenberg, M. (2005). Market value and patent citations.The RAND Journal of Economics, 36(1), 16–38.

Hall, B. H., & Ziedonis, R. H. (2001). The patent paradox revisited: An empirical study of patenting in the U.S. semiconductor industry,
1979–1995.The RAND Journal of Economics, 32(1), 101–128.

Harhoff, D., & Reitzig, M. (2004). Determinants of opposition against EPO patent grants–The case of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
International Journal of Industrial Organization, 22(4), 443–480.

Hegde, D., & Sampat, B. (2009). Examiner citations, applicant citations, and the private value of patents.Economics Letters, 105(3),
287–289.

Hoisl, K. (2007). Tracing mobile inventors – The causality link between inventor mobility and inventor productivity.Research Policy,
36(5), 619–636.

Jaffe, A. B., & de Rassenfosse, G. (2017). Patent citation data in social science research: Overview and best practices.Journal of the
Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(6), 1360–1374.

Jaffe, A. B., & Lerner, J. (2004). Innovation and its discontents: How our broken patent system is endangering innovation and progress,
and what to do about it. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Jaffe, A. B., Trajtenberg, M., & Fogarty, M. S. (2000). Knowledge spillovers and patent citations: Evidence from a survey of inventors.
The American Economic Review, 90(2), 215–218.

Jaffe, A. B., Trajtenberg, M., & Henderson, R. (1993). Geographic localization of knowledge spillovers as evidenced by patent citations.
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108(3), 577–598.

Kesan, J. P. (2002). Carrots and sticks to create a better patent system.Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 17(2), 763–797.

Lampe, R. (2012). Strategic citation.The Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(1), 320–333.

Langinier, C., & Marcoul, P. (2016). The search of prior art and the revelation of information by patent applicants.Review of Industrial
Organization, 49(3), 399–427.

Laursen, K., & Salter, A. (2006). Open for innovation: The role of openness in explaining innovation performance among
U.K. manufacturing firms.Strategic Management Journal, 27(2), 131–150.

Laursen, K., & Salter, A. (2014). The paradox of openness: Appropriability, external search and collaboration.Research Policy, 43(5),
867–878.

Leiponen, A., & Helfat, C. E. (2010). Innovation objectives, knowledge sources, and the benefit of breadth.Strategic Management
Journal, 31(2), 224–236.

Martínez, C. (2011). Patent families: When do different definitions really matter?Scientometrics, 86(1), 39–63.

Marx, M., Strumsky, D., & Fleming, L. (2009). Mobility, skills, and the Michigan non-compete experiment.Management Science, 55
(6), 875–889.

Mattes, E., Stacey, M. C., & Marinova, D. (2006). Surveying inventors listed on patents to investigate determinants of innovation.Scientometrics,
69(3), 475–498.

Moser, P., Ohmstedt, J., & Rhode, P. W. (2018). Patent citations – an analysis of quality differences and citing practices in hybrid
corn.Management Science, 64(4), 1926–1940.

Nelson, A. J. (2009). Measuring knowledge spillovers: What patents, licenses and publications reveal about innovation diffusion.
Research Policy, 38(6), 994–1005.

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical
review of the literature and recommended remedies.The Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.

Roach, M., & Cohen, W. M. (2013). Lens or prism? Patent citations as a measure of knowledge flows from public research.Management
Science, 59(2), 504–525.

Rosenkopf, L., & Nerkar, A. (2001). Beyond local search: Boundary-spanning, exploration, and the impact in the optical disk drive
industry.Strategic Management Journal, 22(4), 287–306.

Sampat, B. N. (2010). When do applicants search for prior art?The Journal of Law and Economics, 53(2), 399–416.

Schmoch, U. (2008). Concept of a technology classification for country comparisons. Final Report to the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO). Geneva, Switzerland: WIPO Retrieved from: http://publica.fraunhofer.de/documents/N-114385.html

Somaya, D. (2012). Patent strategy and management.Journal of Management, 38(4), 1084–1114.

Steensma, H. K., Chari, M., & Heidl, R. (2015). The quest for expansive intellectual property rights and the failure to disclose known
relevant prior art.Strategic Management Journal, 36(8), 1186–1204.

Thompson, P., & Fox-Kean, M. (2005). Patent citations and the geography of knowledge spillovers: A reassessment.The American
Economic Review, 95(1), 450–460.

Tijssen, R. J. W. (2002). Science dependence of technologies: Evidence from inventions and their inventors.Research Policy, 31(4),
509–526.

Torrisi, S., Gambardella, A., Giuri, P., Harhoff, D., Hoisl, K., & Mariani, M. (2016). Used, blocking and sleeping patents: Empirical
evidence from a large-scale inventor survey.Research Policy, 45(7), 1374–1385.

von Graevenitz, G., Wagner, S., & Harhoff, D. (2013). Incidence and growth of patent thickets: The impact of technological opportunities
and complexity.The Journal of Industrial Economics, 61(3), 521–563.

Wadhwa, A., Bodas Freitas, I. M., & Sarkar, M. B. (2017). The paradox of openness and value protection strategies: Effect of extramural
R&D on innovative performance.Organization Science, 28(5), 873–893.

Zobel, A. K., Balsmeier, B., & Chesbrough, H. (2016). Does patenting help or hinder open innovation? Evidence from new entrants in
the solar industry.Industrial and Corporate Change, 25(2), 307–331.