Determinants of firms’ patenting or not patenting behaviors

Abstract

We distinguish between two firm patenting behaviors (‘never patent’ and ‘always patent’) and present a two-factor (capability and willingness) patenting behavior framework to enrich existing research. We examine innovative activities on 165 Taiwanese information and communication technology firms by using a zero-inflated Poisson regression model. Our results suggest that determinants of increasing probability of patenting are not completely the same as ones of decreasing probability of not patenting. Moreover, while capability factors are positively associated with propensity to patent, willingness factors moderate the relationship between capability factors and propensity to patent.