Kenneth Guang-Lih Huang

Does Patent Strategy Shape the Long-Run Supply of Public Knowledge? Evidence from Human Genetics

Knowledge-based firms seeking competitive advantage often draw on the public knowledge stream - ideas embedded in public commons institutions - as the foundation for private knowledge - ideas firms protect through private intellectual property (IP) institutions. However, we have a limited understanding of the converse relationship: the impact of private knowledge strategies on public knowledge production. We examine this question in human genetics, where policymakers debate expanding IP ownership over the human genome. Our econometric analysis shows that gene patents decrease public genetic knowledge, with broader patent scope, private-sector ownership, complexity of the patent landscape, and the genes commercial relevance exacerbating their effect.

China's Innovation Landscape

A growing, domestic, private-sector and geographic diffusion of capacity mark the first two decades of Chinas patent system. The Peoples Republic of China has experienced three decades of sustained, strong annual economic growth as it transitions from a centrally planned economy to a free market. Currently the worlds second largest economy (1), China recognizes scientific and technological innovation as an increasingly important strategy to fuel the next phase of its productivity growth (2). However, the drivers and trajectories of Chinas scientific and technological growth remain underinvestigated. To understand elements of Chinas innovative activities, particularly in science and technology, an analysis of comprehensive patent data provided by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China is presented here.

Mobility, retention and productivity of genomics scientists in the United States

The United States appears to have an increasingly weakening ability to attract and retain genomics scientists.

Knowledge Production in Innovative Firms under Uncertain Intellectual Property Conditions

Knowledge is a valuable and strategic asset that affects how firms and organizations innovate and compete. This study addresses how uncertain intellectual property right (IPR) conditions impact knowledge production and accumulation in different types of innovative firms and organizations, especially when they operate or develop innovations across different IPR institutions.

Institutional Regime Shift in Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation Strategies of Firms in China

This study develops a novel conceptual framework to understand the differential impact of formal institutional regime shift in intellectual property rights on the innovation and patenting strategies of Chinese and Western firms operating in China. We argue that to the extent that Chinese firms have been deeply embedded in China’s informal institutions, they are less responsive to formal institutional changes than Western firms operating in China. Using the major China patent law reform of 2001 as an exogenous event, we find results consistent with our key arguments: With the strengthening of the previously weak (utility model) patent protection, Chinese firms are less likely to apply for such patents to safeguard their innovations than Western firms. However, this difference becomes less pronounced in regions with higher quality intellectual property rights and legal institutions that foster research and development and innovation, and when Western firms gain longer operational experience in China. This s...

Introduction: China and India as Contrast Pair in Innovation and IP

The goal of innovation is to create value through the implementation of viable commercial solutions to customer needs and business challenges, problems and opportunities that are open to exploitation. The innovation landscape of a nation is shaped by a variety of factors, such as its economic climate, government’s vision, policies and commitment to growth and development, investment environment, academia that advances the frontiers of new knowledge and helps to build an innovative workforce, industry committed to innovation to improve the quality of life for everyone, intellectual property rights (IPR) laws and enforcement mechanisms, competition among industries for growth, academia-industry partnership, government-industry-academia policy alliance, climate for entrepreneurial startups, and trading conditions, to mention a few.

Informal institutions and the geography of innovation: An integrative perspective

Integrating the insights from both institutional theory and economic geography, we develop a new conceptual framework to explain how formal and informal institutions in developing countries influence knowledge exchanges within and across geographical locations, thus affecting entrepreneurs’ and firms’ innovative behaviors and outputs. We suggest that the prevalence of informal institutions in developing countries increases the importance of geographic proximity for knowledge exchanges. At the same time, informal institutions provide alternative channels for maintaining non-local social interactions that facilitate knowledge exchanges among geographically distant firms. Using China as the context, we provide theoretical propositions that illustrate these mechanisms in terms of the different innovative behaviors between domestic Chinese firms and multinational companies operating in China. This article provides a fresh perspective on how the geography of innovation is embedded in institutional environments. It enriches the literature by highlighting the important role of informal institutions in influencing innovation and how firms, especially entrepreneurial ones, vary their innovative behaviors depending on the extent of their embeddedness in the informal institutions.

Does Patent Strategy Shape the Long-Run Supply of Public Knowledge?

How do firms’ patent strategies, and the landscape of private property rights they collectively produce, influence the long-run production of public knowledge? Management scholars have paid close attention to the ways in which firms benefit from public knowledge—ideas disclosed through open commons institutions—by using it to generate private knowledge, which is protected by private property institutions such as patents (Cockburn and Henderson 1998; Cohen and Levinthal 1990; Fleming and Sorenson 2004; Powell et al. 1996). However, they have paid scant attention to the converse relationship: the impact of private knowledge on public knowledge production. Instead, legal and policy analyses dominate the study of this relationship (Heller 2008; Heller and Eisenberg 1998; Lessig 2004). This situation speaks to the importance of a management perspective linking policy and legal studies with organizational theory and strategy that can initiate a rich agenda examining the interaction between firm strategy and the institutional foundations of knowledge work.

Agency incentives and firm innovation: Patenting behavior of state-owned firms in China

This study examines how firm agency shapes firm innovation behaviors. We argue that agents of the firm will give greater priority to the tasks of developing the innovations that are evaluated highe...

Institutional Regime Shift in Intellectual Property Rights and Firms' Patenting Strategies in China

This study develops a new conceptual framework to understand the differential impact of formal institutional regime shift in intellectual property rights on the innovation and patenting strategies ...