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Investigating Collaborative R&D Using Patent Data: The Case Study of Robot Technology in Japan
Author(s) -
Lechevalier Sébastien,
Ikeda Yukio,
Nishimura Junichi
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.1536
Subject(s) - novelty , quality (philosophy) , focus (optics) , business , knowledge management , marketing , industrial organization , computer science , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , physics , epistemology , optics
The growing trend of collaborative R&D initiated by firms has been well documented. However, the evidences regarding basic questions such as the benefits of collaboration and the motives of firms are still mixed. The main novelty of this paper is to investigate these questions by using comprehensive patent data with a focus on information concerning inventors. We consider the case of robot technology in Japan since early 1990s and get the following results. First, collaboration with external research partners lead to a higher quality of the invention. Second, the determinants and motives, which encourage firms to engage in collaborative research, differ depending on the partner they are collaborating with. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.