Firm Size and R&D Intensity: A Re-Examination

Using data from the Federal Trade Commission's Line of Business Program and survey measures of technological opportunity and appropriability conditions, this paper finds that overall firm size has a very small, statistically in- significant effect on business unit R & D intensity when either fixed industry effects or measured industry characteristics are taken into account. Business unit size has no effect on the R & D intensity of business units that perform R & D, but it affects the probability of conducting R & D. Business unit and firm size jointly explain less than one per cent of the variance in R & D intensity; industry effects explain nearly half the variance.

Protecting Their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability Conditions and Why U.S. Manufacturing Firms Patent (or Not)

Based on a survey questionnaire administered to 1478 R&D labs in the U.S. manufacturing sector in 1994, we find that firms typically protect the profits due to invention with a range of mechanisms, including patents, secrecy, lead time advantages and the use of complementary marketing and manufacturing capabilities. Of these mechanisms, however, patents tend to be the least emphasized by firms in the majority of manufacturing industries, and secrecy and lead time tend to be emphasized most heavily. A comparison of our results with the earlier survey findings of Levin et al. [1987] suggest that patents may be relied upon somewhat more heavily by larger firms now than in the early 1980s. For the protection of product innovations, secrecy now appears to be much more heavily employed across most industries than previously. Our results on the motives to patent indicate that firms patent for reasons that often extend beyond directly profiting from a patented innovation through either its commercialization or licensing. In addition to the prevention of copying, the most prominent motives for patenting include the prevention of rivals from patenting related inventions (i.e., patent blocking'), the use of patents in negotiations and the prevention of suits. We find that firms commonly patent for different reasons in discrete' product industries, such as chemicals, versus complex' product industries, such as telecommunications equipment or semiconductors. In the former, firms appear to use their patents commonly to block the development of substitutes by rivals, and in the latter, firms are much more likely to use patents to force rivals into negotiations.

Introduction: innovation and small business

This paper introduces the special issue of Small Business Economics on Innovation. What binds the papers together is either their focus on the effect of firm size on the causes and consequences of innovation or their focus on the role small firms play in reshaping the industrial landscape

Where Excludability Matters: Material v. Intellectual Property in Academic Biomedical Research

On the basis of survey responses from 507 academic biomedical researchers, we examine the impact of patents on access to the knowledge and material inputs that are used in subsequent research. We observe that access to knowledge inputs is largely unaffected by patents. Accessing other researchers' materials, such as cell lines, reagents, and antigens is, however, more problematic. The main factors associated with restricted access to materials include scientific competition, the cost of providing materials, a history of commercial activity on the part of the prospective supplier, and whether the material in question is itself a drug

Structural, morphological, and magnetic characterizations of (FexMn1-x)2O3 nanocrystals: A comprehensive stoichiometric determination

Iron manganese trioxide (FexMn1-x)2O3 nanocrystals were synthesized by the sol-gel method. The 80 K Mossbauer spectrum was well-fitted using two doublets representing the 8b and 24d crystallographic sites of the (FexMn1-x)2O3 phase and two weak extra sextets which were attributed to crystalline and amorphous hematite. Our findings showed formation of a bixbyite primary phase. The Raman spectrum exhibits six Raman active modes, typical of (Fe,Mn)2O3, and two extra Raman modes associated with the secondary hematite phase. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis confirmed the presence of oxygen vacancy onto the (FexMn1-x)2O3 particle surface, with varying oxidation states. X-band magnetic resonance data revealed a single broad resonance line in the whole temperature range (3.8 K - 300 K). The temperature dependence of both resonance field and resonance linewidth shows a remarkable change in the range of 40 - 50 K, herein credited to surface spin glass behavior. The model picture used assumes (FexMn1-x)2O3 nanoparticles with a core-shell structure. Results indicate that below about 50 K the spin system of shell reveals a paramagnetic to spin glass-like transition upon cooling, with a critical temperature estimated at 43 K. In the higher temperature range, the superparamagnetic hematite (secondary) phase contributes remarkably to the temperature dependence of the resonance linewidth. Zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and fieldcooled (FC) data show strong irreversibility and a peak in the ZFC curve at 33 K, attributed to a paramagnetic-ferrimagnetic transition of the main phase. Hysteresis curve at 5 K shows a low coercive field of 4 kOe, with the magnetization not reaching saturation at 70 kOe, suggesting the occurrence of a ferrimagnetic core with a magnetic disorder at surface, characteristic of core-shell spin-glass-like behavior