We investigate whether standard indicators can distinguish between “wacky” patents and a control group. Forward citations are good predictors of importance. However, “wacky” patents have higher originality, generality and citation lags, suggesting that these indicators should be...

We examine how the ownership of intellectual property rights influences patenting of university-discovered inventions. In 2002, Germany transferred patent rights from faculty members to their universities. To identify the effect on the volume of patenting, we exploit the researcher-level...

This study investigates how local milieus foster innovation success of firms. We complement the common practice of linking firm performance indicators to regional characteristics with survey evidence on the perceived importance of locational factors. While the former approach assumes that...