Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui Recent documents in Kwanghui Lim en-us Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:14:32 PST 3600 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/17 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/17 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:30:33 PDT In March, the Boston Consulting Group published a report on "The Innovation Imperative in Manufacturing". The report assesses the level of competitiveness of US firms, both across different states of the US as well as in comparison to other countries. Here is my IdeaCHECK on the report: http://cite.org.au/store/viewitem.asp?idProduct=573. Kwanghui Lim Knowledge Flows Technology Policy http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/16 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/16 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:09:36 PDT Kwanghui Lim Knowledge Flows Managing Intellectual Property http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/15 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/15 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:19:24 PDT There is as yet no empirical work available that carefully examines the relationship between gene patenting and the costs of providing healthcare, the training and accreditation of healthcare professionals, and progress in medical research. Thorough and careful empirical studies are needed - and on a broader scale than currently exists - to form the basis of policy decisions. Kwanghui Lim Managing Intellectual Property Managing Scientists and Engineers http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/14 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/14 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:36:32 PDT Research qns: What's the effect of a firm's prior competence in old technology on its innovation capability in new technology? Under what conditions would such effects be enhanced or reduced? Preview of results: We find that competence in old technology has a negative effect on patenting in new technological fields. Interdependence between old and new fields offsets this result, but not interdependence between complementary and new technology. Wenyue Zhuang Knowledge Flows Technology Strategy http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/13 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/13 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:20:12 PDT This case concerns a dispute between a US inventor and a Canadian technology company over patent infringement. The technology in question is an essential part of the BlackBerry communications device and the innovation is the wireless receipt of e-mail. The resulting legal battle threatened to shut down the BlackBerry system leaving millions of users, including essential government employees in the US and elsewhere, without their main communications tool. The inventor sought compensation for infringement through a company that operated solely to manage intellectual property. The case raises important issues in the strategic management of intellectual property. Kwanghui Lim Managing Intellectual Property http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/12 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/12 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:37:20 PDT I present an analysis of the Australian National Innovation Review (2008). Follow the link to the original on the Center for Ideas and the Economy website. The original PDF contains formatting that is lost in the online version.Background:In September, 2008, the Australian Government released a report, venturousaustralia, containing a comprehensive review of the national innovation system ("The Review"). It was assembled by Dr Terry Cutler along with an 11-member expert panel, and also incorporates suggestions from over 600 public submissions. It calls for urgent action because over the past decade, Australia has fallen behind its peer countries to a dramatic degree in terms of its investments in education and R&D (Nelson, 1983). This is a source of concern because it is unclear how long more the boom in natural resources will continue to fuel the economy; innovation is therefore seen as an important source of future growth. Kwanghui Lim Knowledge Flows Managing Intellectual Property Managing Scientists and Engineers http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/11 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/11 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:38:57 PDT This thesis comprises three essays on the relationships among basic research, applied research, and innovation. Earlier research emphasized that absorbing external knowledge requires effort and investment (Cohen and Levinthal, 1989; 1990). This thesis explores various mechanisms through which absorptive capacity is developed, including a firm's R&D, its connectedness to the external scientific community, the provision of a science-oriented research environment, and investment in basic research. The chief contribution of this dissertation is to document the many ways in which firms develop absorptive capacity, and how absorptive capacity varies across industry, stage of technology development, and scientific area.The first essay explores how firms develop different kinds of absorptive capacity. A firm's absorptive capacity depends upon internal R&D and its connectedness to universities, other firms and R&D consortia. R&D is effective for absorbing disciplinary knowledge; alternative mechanisms are useful for domain-specific knowledge. A science-oriented research environment is not necessary, as long as the firm remains connected through other means. To illustrate, I trace knowledge spillovers of copper interconnect technology for semiconductors.The second essay examines the concentration of basic and applied research relative to innovation. In the semiconductor industry, basic research is surprisingly concentrated relative to innovation. Since spillovers are prevalent in this industry, I conclude that many semiconductor firms capture spillovers without performing much basic research. In the pharmaceutical industry, basic research and innovation have similar concentrations. In both industries, applied research is not concentrated relative to innovation.The third essay examines researchers at five firms. Given two researchers with the same number of publications at IBM, AT&T, or Intel, the one who publishes a higher fraction of her papers in basic research journals is less likely to patent. These researchers face a tradeoff between participating in basic and applied research (Allen, 1977). The opposite holds at Merck and DuPont, where researchers who publish a higher fraction of papers in basic scientific journals obtain more patents. Thus, basic research has a positive impact on pharmaceutical patents (Gambardella, 1992; Cockburn and Henderson, 1998). Within Dupont and Merck, patenting is most closely associated with publications in basic chemistry, and with pharmaceutical R&D.Thesis Committee: Scott Stern (Chair) Assistant Professor Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, MIT Rebecca Henderson Eastman Kodak LFM Professor of Management Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, MIT Eric von Hippel Professor, Management of Innovation Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, MIT Kwanghui Lim Knowledge Flows Technology Strategy http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/10 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/10 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:24:29 PDT We propose an extension of the Gans-Stern (2003) framework that includes entry by existing firms. An incumbent firm possessing complementary assets and strong appropriability is in a formidable position (Teece, 1986). However, a de alio entrant can leverage complementary assets to enter along a new technological trajectory, and then develop appropriability. We illustrate how several mobile telecommunications firms (Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung) pursued this strategy to catch up with the market leader (Motorola). We also identify several shortcomings in Motorola's approach: it was too inward-looking in developing technologies, but ironically not inward-looking enough in exploiting its most valuable patents. Zi-lin Wong Knowledge Flows Managing Intellectual Property Technology Strategy http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/9 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/9 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:07:07 PDT We show how social ties and contractual factors shape the relationship between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. While direct ties result in the VC offering more advice to the entrepreneur, indirect ties result in greater levels of disagreement between VC and entrepreneur. We also find that contractual favorableness is associated with more advice and less disagreement, but that contractual flexibility is surprisingly not significant. The results vary by area of advice and disagreement. Our results suggest that scholars and practitioners must integrate contractual and social network perspectives to better understand the VC-entrepreneur relationship. Kwanghui Lim Knowledge Flows Managing Intellectual Property Managing Scientists and Engineers http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/8 http://works.bepress.com/kwanghui/8 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:51:10 PDT We assess the roles of internal human capital and strategic alliances as antecedents of innovation at the firm and the network levels, respectively, and investigate the effects of their interdependence on firms' innovation performance. At the firm level, we identify three types of human capital that contribute directly to innovative capability: (1) pure scientists (2) bridging scientists, and (3) pure inventors. At the network level, we explore the performance effects of the firm's strategic alliances with universities as well as with other firms. Building upon the literature on innovation, we highlight two perspectives on human capital and strategic alliances, which predict opposite moderating effects of the two antecedents of innovation. We reconcile these disparate views by showing that the direction of the moderating effect is contingent upon the types of human capital and strategic alliances involved. Using patent, publication and alliance data from 222 biotechnology firms, we find diminishing returns to university alliances when pure scientists and bridging scientists are involved, whereas the benefits of industry alliances are enhanced in the presence of all three forms of human capital. The findings also suggest that the benefits derived from strategic alliances depend on whether or not they are an extension of the social relationships of human capital within the firm. The reinforcing and substitutive effects of internal human capital on the alliance benefits imply the possible roles that company scientists can play in shaping the alliance portfolios of biotechnology firms. Pek-hooi Soh Knowledge Flows Managing Intellectual Property Managing Scientists and Engineers