Joining Standards Organizations: the role of R&D expenditures, patents, and the product-market position

Baron, Justus; Li, Cher; Nasirov, Shukhrat

Abstract

This paper studies collaborative innovation in the context of developing open technology standards coordinated by standards organizations. Using longitudinal data from the world's largest R&D investors matched with membership information from 180 standards organizations, we analyze the firm-level determinants of the extent of participation in standards development. We identify a highly robust positive effect of a firm's R&D expenditure on its involvement in standards organizations, and find this impact being further bolstered by the firm's patenting intensity and/or product-market position. Exploiting exogenous variations induced by preferential tax treatment, we find a causal positive effect of patenting intensity on the participation of R&D-intensive firms in standards organizations. This effect is, however, only significant for membership in organizations developing standards potentially subject to Standard-Essential Patents. Our findings also underscore the significant role of the firm's product-market position in incentivizing engagement in standards development, as exemplified by trademarking intensity, brand value or the number of standard-compliant end product models.

Citation

Baron, J., Li, C., & Nasirov, S. (2018). Joining Standards Organizations: the role of R&D expenditures, patents, and the product-market position

• Working Paper Type: Working Paper
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Deposit Date: Dec 10, 2018
• Keywords: standards organizations; technology standards; intellectual property; R&D expenditures; patents; trademarks
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1402172
• Publisher URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3287475