AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

SUNDAY
This paper examines the consequences of a firm's multi-level network embeddedness – its embeddedness in the
ego-network, regional network, and whole global network – for its vertical integration strategy. In particular, we
study how network partner configurations at these three levels of analysis influence a firm's tendency to expand
its degree and breadth of vertical integration. In addition, we analyze moderating effect of absorptive capacity.
Based on the knowledge-based view, we view the expansion of vertical integration as a firm's purposeful
strategy to access knowledge in the light of unfavorable network partner configurations and absorptive capacity.
We test this conceptual framework on a longitudinal event history data base of the entire German biotech
population between 1996 and 2009. We fill a significant gap in the literature, as prior vertical integration
research has largely neglected the global network perspective. Our results shed new light on the relevance of
network linkages and absorptive capacity for the vertical value chain configuration of knowledge-intensive firms.
(For more information, please contact: Florian Zock, University of Mannheim, Germany: fzock@mail.unimannheim.de)
Session: 1.1.10 - Competitive
Track: 1 - Institutions, Governance, and CSR
Intellectual Property Rights and International Business
Presented On: July 1, 2012 - 09:00-10:15
Chair: April Michele Knill, Florida State University
The Response of Inventors to IPR Reform
Theodore A. Khoury, Portland State University
Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, Northeastern University
Luis Alfonso Dau, Northeastern University
We analyze the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) reform on patenting in emerging economies. Building
on the institutional view of the firm, we argue that IPR reform has a positive impact on both domestic and
foreign patent applications because it increases the transparency, credibility, consistency, and ease of patenting
for both types of inventors. However, we propose that a democratic political system reinforces the effect of IPR
reform on foreign but not domestic patent applications, whereas a strong legal system heightens the impact of
IPR reform on domestic but not foreign patent applications. The analyses of a panel of 501 patent applications
in 18 countries from 1967-2009 provide support for these arguments. (For more information, please contact:
Luis Alfonso Dau, Northeastern University, USA: l.dau@neu.edu)
Measuring the Institutional System of Patent Protection and Enforcement: A New Index of 46 countries
Nikolaos P. Papageorgiadis, Bradford University School of Management
Adam R. Cross, University of Leeds
In this study we report an index that measures the strength of the Institutional System of Patent Rights
Protection and Enforcement (ISP) for 46 developing and developed countries and for the years 1998-2007. The
index is constructed following a new conceptual framework that is informed by institutional and transaction cost
theory and includes measures for both the de jure (book law-related) and de facto (enforcement-related)
components of the ISP. The new scores of national patent protection and enforcement strength are likely to be
of use in quantitative investigation of a wide range of macroeconomic phenomena and in various disciplinary
settings. (For more information, please contact: Nikolaos P. Papageorgiadis, Bradford University School of
Management, United Kingdom: n.papageorgiadis1@bradford.ac.uk)
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
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