Innovation is widely recognized as a key to economic growth. Most research on the innovation process has focused on the results of R&D projects. The positive relation between R&D intensity as an input and innovative performance as an output has become the canonical image for research on innovation. While R&D is an important input to innovation, there is growing evidence that a significant share of innovation is not born from R&D. Much of this non-R&D innovation consists of incremental improvements to existing products, or process innovations, although non-R&D innovation is not limited to these kinds of improvements. Non-R&D innovations can also come from problem solving activities or pursuit of new product ideas outside of a formal R&D project. Such activities would be missed in innovation accounts based on regular, formal R&D. Given the importance of innovation for the sociology and economics of science, and the central role of innovation in policy debates, this study expands the study of innovation to include non-R&D innovations and analyzes the drivers and outcomes of non-R&D compared to R&D-based innovations, with the goal of improving science and innovation policy by: examining the concept of innovation from different theoretical perspectives (Chapter 2), creating new measures and improving understanding of existing measures (Chapter 3), developing new models of the innovation process based on knowledge and learning that expand beyond the existing emphasis on R&D inputs (Chapter 4), and different participation of R&D and non-R&D innovations in markets for technology (Chapter 5). The main results show that the relative effectiveness of learning by R&D and non-R&D for innovation is contingent on nature of knowledge, characterized by generality (i.e., high mobility/transferability) and visibility (i.e., tighter links between actions and outcomes), and that non-R&D inventions are less likely to engage in the licensing market, but are more likely to have exclusivity clauses than R&D inventions. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for management of innovation and innovation policy.

Innovation comprises the processes of invention and commercialization. While the importance of innovation, especially commercialization, has been widely recognized, existing studies have largely overlooked the commercialization process. By examining the determinants of uses and nonuses of patented inventions from firms at the levels of technology, organization, and project/invention, this study attempts to help fill a critical gap in the literature. In doing so, it enriches theoretical understandings of innovation and, in particular, builds on the evolutionary explanation of technology development, the Teecian framework on profiting from innovation, Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), the Knowledge-Based View (KBV), and open innovation and innovation network perspectives. It also reveals an empirical reality of commercial use and strategic nonuse of patents. The study is based on a novel dataset constructed from multiple sources: inventor surveys, the United States Patent and Trademark Office online database, and COMPUSTAT, among others. After examining the factors affecting overall propensity to commercialize patented inventions, this study explores the factors that affect the organizational paths of commercialization. The empirical estimation indicates that technological uncertainty and a strong internal position of complementary assets raise the propensity for internal commercialization. The study argues that openness of innovation processes and network relationships should affect the choice of commercialization paths. Consistent with the hypotheses, empirical estimations show that external industrial knowledge increases the propensity of internal commercialization. The study also indicates that collaboration has diverging effects on the choice of commercialization paths. While collaboration with firms in vertical relationships tends to favor internal commercialization, collaboration with firms in horizontal relationships tends to favor external commercialization (licensing, start-up). Finally, the study reports findings on the strategic use of patents and then tests hypotheses about the factors driving strategic nonuse. It concludes that a significant portion of U.S. patents are indeed filed for strategic reasons. It also finds that characteristics of technology and firms are significantly associated with different strategies. In particular, firms are more likely to use a patent for strategic defensive purposes when they have larger amounts of assets. The study concludes with discussing managerial and policy implications.

Innovation comprises the processes of invention and commercialization. While the importance of innovation, especially commercialization, has been widely recognized, existing studies have largely overlooked the commercialization process. By examining the determinants of uses and nonuses of patented inventions from firms at the levels of technology, organization, and project/invention, this study attempts to help fill a critical gap in the literature. In doing so, it enriches theoretical understandings of innovation and, in particular, builds on the evolutionary explanation of technology development, the Teecian framework on profiting from innovation, Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), the Knowledge-Based View (KBV), and open innovation and innovation network perspectives. It also reveals an empirical reality of commercial use and strategic nonuse of patents. The study is based on a novel dataset constructed from multiple sources: inventor surveys, the United States Patent and Trademark Office online database, and COMPUSTAT, among others. After examining the factors affecting overall propensity to commercialize patented inventions, this study explores the factors that affect the organizational paths of commercialization. The empirical estimation indicates that technological uncertainty and a strong internal position of complementary assets raise the propensity for internal commercialization. The study argues that openness of innovation processes and network relationships should affect the choice of commercialization paths. Consistent with the hypotheses, empirical estimations show that external industrial knowledge increases the propensity of internal commercialization. The study also indicates that collaboration has diverging effects on the choice of commercialization paths. While collaboration with firms in vertical relationships tends to favor internal commercialization, collaboration with firms in horizontal relationships tends to favor external commercialization (licensing, start-up). Finally, the study reports findings on the strategic use of patents and then tests hypotheses about the factors driving strategic nonuse. It concludes that a significant portion of U.S. patents are indeed filed for strategic reasons. It also finds that characteristics of technology and firms are significantly associated with different strategies. In particular, firms are more likely to use a patent for strategic defensive purposes when they have larger amounts of assets. The study concludes with discussing managerial and policy implications.