Title: Openness in research and development: co-patenting impact on breakthrough innovations in the pharmaceutical industry

Authors: Alfred Osta; Bassem Maamari

Addresses: Faculty of Business Studies, Lebanese International University, Lebanon ' Grenoble School of Management, 12 Rue Pierre Semard, 38000 Grenoble, France

Abstract: Breakthrough innovations are crucial drivers of economic progress, often depending on external knowledge sources to complement internal knowledge. Co-patenting is one way to achieve this by implementing open innovation within research and development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of co-patenting on breakthrough innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. A research question is tested empirically using an archival dataset comprising 866 patents in Pharma. The findings show that co-patenting has a significant positive impact on breakthrough innovations. Short of previous investigation, this paper provides new empirical insights on the open innovation and co-patenting levels, leading to both academic and practical implications on the field.

Keywords: breakthrough innovation; radical innovation; co-patenting; open innovation; research and development collaboration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2020.105926

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2020 Vol.21 No.3, pp.395 - 408

Received: 01 May 2018
Accepted: 03 Sep 2018
Published online: 18 Mar 2020 *

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