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Factors favoring innovation from a regional perspective: A comparison of patents and trademarks

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Abstract

This paper investigates factors associated to a higher likelihood of engaging in Intellectual Property Right (IPR) activities in the 103 Italian provinces for the period 1998–2007. We distinguish between patent and trademark activity and find that their determinants are to some extent different. Both patent and trademark activity are influenced by use of credit, presence of university graduates, and industrial districts. Hence, three types of capital matter for both types of IPR activity: financial, human, and network capital. Higher endowment of social capital only influences trademark activity. We do not find an impact of entrepreneurship capital. Patent activity appears to be influenced relatively more strongly by financial and network capital, and trademark activity relatively more strongly by human and social capital.

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Notes

  1. Although here is a mounting evidence showing that patents in particular are used for strategic purposes other than protecting innovation (cf., among others, Ceccagnoli 2009).

  2. Given that such an effect arises also at the industry level, one may argue that it is very common within cooperative firm networks of the industrial district type. In fact, it has been shown that in certain high-tech industries firms tend to reshape their patent strategies in accordance with those of other firms in the same industry (cf., among others, Hall and Ziedonis 2001).

  3. This result might be also consistent with the presence of non-competitive markets: as put forward by Bellettini et al. (2013), large firms should be more likely to take IPRs and just not react to entry by new entrepreneurial firms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Martin Carree

  2. Istat-Sede dell’Emilia-Romagna, Galleria Cavour, 9, 40121, Bologna, Italy

    Roberta Piergiovanni

  3. Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Piazza Scaravilli, 2, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    Enrico Santarelli

  4. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, 3000, DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Ingrid Verheul

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  1. Martin Carree
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  2. Roberta Piergiovanni
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  3. Enrico Santarelli
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  4. Ingrid Verheul
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enrico Santarelli.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 7 Amount of credit used per province (average 1998–2007 per 1,000 firms (million €))
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Table 8 Correlation matrix
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Carree, M., Piergiovanni, R., Santarelli, E. et al. Factors favoring innovation from a regional perspective: A comparison of patents and trademarks. Int Entrep Manag J 11, 793–810 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-014-0313-8

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