(A) study on the factors affecting changes of patent yield

Abstract

Technological innovation is a crucial driver of economic growth, and countries and firms are actively investing in research and development to foster technological advancements. The efficiency of investment in research and development can be expressed as the patent yield, defined as the amount of patent production compared to research and development costs. Patent yields tend to decline over the long term in many countries but can also increase in the short term, depending on the country, industry, or time period. Specifically, in the case of the United States, the patent yield increased rapidly in the 1990s and decreased again in the 2000s.While existing studies have concentrated on the phenomenon of short-term decreases or increases in patent yield, there is a lack of research on the long-term changes in patent yield. Consequently, this study examined the factors affecting patent yield, as pointed out in previous studies across multiple countries, industries, and a long period (1985 to 2014). According to this study, technological opportunities, national industrial competitiveness, and the business sector's patenting intensity were found to have a positive effect on patent yield. The results suggest that the surge in U.S. patent yield in the 1990s was due to the combined effects of improved technological opportunity, enhanced industrial competitiveness, and increased patent value. Additionally, the decline in U.S. patent yield in the 2000s was attributed to the decrease in U.S. industrial competitiveness rather than a decrease in patent value. Furthermore, this study empirically demonstrates that technological opportunity precedes industrial competitiveness, and industrial competitiveness precedes patent yield in the U.S. case. Consequently, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between R&D and patents as outcomes by empirically showing that the technological environment and international competitive environment significantly impact patent yield.