" Some… may think that there should be no patents on software-related inventions. Whatever the merits of this position, the debate in the U.S. has shifted from this issue to that of patent quality. " Samuelson (2004, p. 23) To gain competitive advantage in an increasingly digital economy many firms engage in costly research and development activities to develop innovative software applications....

This paper has shed light on the processes of technological diversification and specialization by firms. European, American and Japanese firms have been examined in 25 technological fields within telecommunications, information and audiovisual technologies for the period 1978-1998. In general, in electronics technologies incumbent firms are engaged in continuous processes of technological diver...

Debtor-friendly laws can encourage innovation by reducing the cost of failure for innovators, but can also harm innovation if they tighten the availability of credit to innovators. We use state and year variation in U.S. personal bankruptcy laws, which affect the capital constraints of individual innovators and small firms, to investigate the effects of debtor protection on innovation. We find ...

Contrary to our näıve understanding that ideas for innovation are generated by supply-side such as product developers, studies suggest that ideas can be generated by consumers, especially the group of users called ”early adopters” who behave differently from product developers in regard to product adoption and general knowledge. This research includes an experiment with consumers to test what i...

In this paper, we offer a novel explanation to the surge in patenting observed during the last few years. When PTOs (Patent and Trademark Offices) award bad patents, not only do “false innovators” have the incentive to file applications but also, and more interestingly, “true innovators” are forced to patent more intensively in an attempt to signal their type. However, if they are liquidity con...

We study how best to reward innovators whose work builds on earlier innovations. Incentives to innovate are obtained by offering innovators the opportunity to profit from their innovations. Since innovations compete, awarding rights to one innovator reduces the value of the rights to prior innovators. We show that the optimal allocation involves shared rights, where more than one innovator is p...

The impact of the Mongol invasions of the Middle East has been the subject of extensive research, especially in the last few decades. Scholars have evaluated the damage and the benefits brought by the Mongols to the Islamic world in different fields such as the military, religion, politics, economy and culture. Despite this, in the case of Anatolia, the Mongol period is still under-studied when...