Academic inventors and firm inventiveness: A quasi-experimental analysis of firms’ patents

Paper in proceeding, 2011

This paper analyzes the average effect of involving academics as inventors on the tech- nological importance of firms’ patents. Drawing on a database of Swedish academic patents, a quasi-experimental design is employed by matching firms’ academic and non-academic patents on a set of patent characteristics. The findings point to a negative effect of academic in- ventors on the technological impact of firms’ patents. Results moreover show a positive effect of academic involvement on the generality of firms’ patents, indicating a more widespread impact. The persistence of firms’ academic patents, measuring the extent to which patents’ knowledge is spread and retained in subsequent inventions, also show a positive effect of academic involvement. These findings suggest that firms on average involve academics in early stages of technology development.