專利組合策略與企業績效關聯性之研究 -以台灣高科技產業為例

Abstract

本研究探討於美國申請專利之台灣高科技廠商，其專利組合策略對於企業績效的遞延影響。專利組合策略採用Ernst(1998)專利管理矩陣與技術多角化兩種衡量方式，試圖找出適合台灣廠商的專利策略。研究樣本為國內高科技廠商共69家企業，專利資料以2004年至2006年的申請數為基準，觀察2006年至2008年的績效變化。 研究結果發現，以專利管理矩陣做為專利策略的區隔時，積極從事專利活動之企業有較佳的績效；而同屬於積極從事專利活動之企業中，被引證次數較高的企業績效優於被引證次數較低的企業，這意謂著企業可藉由專利的發明來達到公司價值最大化的目標，其中被引證次數是脫穎而出的關鍵。另外，以技術多角化的角度切入，企業內部績效是考慮成本效益觀點，非相關技術多角化會產生額外的成本，而相關技術多角化可減少成本的支出，產生不同的內部績效；企業市場績效則是考慮資本市場的反應，投資人較青睞採取非相關技術多角化之企業，反而不看好採取相關技術多角化之企業。

The study investigates the lag effect of patent portfolio strategy on the performance of Taiwan’s technology firms which has applied for patents in the United States. There are two methods to identify patent portfolio strategy namely patent management matrix and technological diversification. In our investigation, we seek to find an appropriate patent strategy for Taiwan’s firms. The sample includes 69 technology firms in Taiwan and based on their patent application from 2004 to 2006, this study observes their performance difference between 2006 and 2008. The empirical results reveal that under the patent management matrix perspective, companies engaging in patent activities show better performance. In addition, companies keeping high-citation patents are more successful than companies keeping low- citation patents. This means that companies can maximize their firms’ value through patent inventions. However, if companies are striving to standout amongst their competitor, they also need to promote patent citation. On the other hand, under the technological diversification perspective, depending on the type of proxy variable used, a firm’s performance will differ. This is because when a corporate internal performance (ROA) proxy variable is used it takes into consideration cost efficiency but when a corporate market performance (Tobin’s Q) proxy variable is utilized it reacts to capital markets.