产业经济学系—管理信息系联合讲座

时间：4月21日（周四） 13:30-15:30

地点：思源楼326室

主持人：龚冰琳 博士

主题：Software Patents and Firm Value: A Real Options Perspective on the Role of Innovation Orientation and Environmental Uncertainty

主讲人：Animesh（Associate Professor, McGill University）

摘要：Software patents have been growing steadily since 1996 when the restrictions on the patentability of software were eliminated. However, there is ongoing debate about the value of software patents, especially among practitioners who argue that software patents do not play a significant role in a firm’s profits because such technological inventions are often fuzzy and ambiguous. In this paper, we develop a novel theoretical framework based on the real option theory and the literature on exploration and exploitation to assess the value of software patent. Moreover, we examine the impact of contextual factors related to the nature of innovation underlying firms’ patent portfolios (exploitative vs. explorative) and the environmental uncertainty (competitiveness and dynamism) on the value of software patents. Specifically, we focus on the interaction between the moderators (i.e., innovation orientation and environmental uncertainty) as well as the joint effect of two different dimensions of environmental uncertainty. Based on a large panel dataset consisting of 602 US firms, our results suggest that firms with a software patent portfolio having higher levels of explorative (exploitative) orientation have greater returns and higher firm value (as measured by Tobin’s q) in market environment exhibiting low (high) dynamism and high (low) competitiveness. We discuss the implications for research and practice.

产业经济学系

2016-3-30