The impact of public research on industry innovation: A technology-level perspective in the green energy field

By analysing technology attributes, this paper examines the degree to which companies build on technologies developed by public research organisations (PROs) to innovate. Four technology attributes are considered as (i) the level of establishment, (ii) the scope of application, (iii) the scientific nature, and (iv) the technological breadth. We develop hypotheses, and the green energy field is in the focus of this study. Accordingly, results are based on a sample of 4,363 green energy patents registered by PROs at the USPTO in the period 1976-2011. Results of the Tobit regression reveal that the level of establishment has a positive influence on subsequent industry innovation efforts; only when the level of establishment becomes excessively high this effect turns negative. Furthermore, the scope of application and the technological breadth positively impact the spread of public environmental technologies among companies, whereas the scientific nature has a negative effect.