Patent holders may choose to protect innovations with single patents or to develop portfolios of multiple, related inventions. We propose a simple decision-making model in which patent-holders may allocate resources to either expanding the number of related patents or investing in higher value...

This paper estimates the determinants of labour productivity in European NUTS regions during 1989-1996. Unlike previous studies, which have focussed either on local technological capabilities or on agglomeration economies, we compare three potential explanations of regional advantages:...

We use cluster analysis to describe the regional linkages that arise through funding of research contract networks in the EU. We find five significantly different kinds of networks, that we label: 1) Technological development, 2) Basic research, 3) Quasi-elite, 4) Elite and 5) Southern. These...

This paper employs data from an extensive European survey to produce one of the first systematic assessments of the private economic value of patents. The estimated mean of our patent value distribution is higher than 3 million Euros, the median is about one-tenth, and the mode is around a few...

In biotechnology, large firms enter into different kinds of linkages with universities and small/medium sized research-intensive firms. The authors test the hypothesis that the strategies of external linkage of the large firms with other parties are complementary to one another. They show that...