专利有效性竞争失败压力与企业技术方向调整策略

Abstract

External pressure can trigger cascading reallocations of innovation resources across technological levels and directions, yet prior studies only provide evidence of changes in the number of patents in new or focal technological subclasses at the subclass level. This study shows that after patent invalidation, firms reduce their innovation efforts in other existing and new subclasses and redirect resources to develop focal technological subclasses. However, they do not concentrate on focal technology groups; instead, they increase innovation efforts in other existing and new technological groups. This suggests a concentration strategy at the subclass level but a differentiated strategy at the group level. Firms are more likely to adjust this pattern when technological directions are more important and adjusted more frequently, when technological relatedness is higher and technological distance is shorter, when peer technological pressure, product market competition, and operating risk are stronger, when resources such as inventors and high-level technical talent and their allocation efficiency are higher, and when myopic shareholders are more prevalent while managerial power is weaker. Firms engage in high-innovation-degree activities in key technological directions, but low-innovation-degree activities in non-key technological groups. They also expand the pool of inventors, accumulate knowledge, and increase collaborative innovation partners in key technological directions, maintain more stable R&D investment, and are more likely to produce high-value patents suitable for capitalization — indicating increased R&D investment and strengthened resource allocation toward key technological directions. These findings enrich the literature on firms' technological direction choices.