Title: Born to be successful: start-up patenting activity determinants

Authors: Simona Leonelli; Francesca Masciarelli

Addresses: Department of Economics and Management 'M. Fanno', University of Padova, Via del Santo, 33, 35123 Padova, Italy ' Department of Business Administration, 'G. d'Annunzio' University, Chieti-Pescara, Viale Pindaro, 42, 65127 Pescara, Italy

Abstract: Patenting is fundamental to start-up survival and growth. Research indicates that patenting enables start-ups to protect their ideas from competitors, profit from their inventions, and signal their value to stakeholders. Drawing on the resource-based theory, the paper shows that start-ups' patenting activity is related to both external and internal conditions. Relying on a sample consisting of 195 start-ups, located in Italy and France, the market scenario, that is, market dynamism and concentration, is found to affect start-ups' patenting activity. Also, the paper shows that start-ups' age is negatively related to patenting, and that entrepreneur narcissism has different impacts based on its prevailing characteristics: entitlement/exploitativeness is positively related to patenting, grandiose exhibitionism is negatively related to it, while leadership/authority shows no connection with this activity.

Keywords: start-up patenting activity; market scenarios; start-up age; entrepreneur narcissism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2021.115311

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2021 Vol.43 No.1, pp.1 - 21

Received: 29 Jun 2019
Accepted: 22 Oct 2019
Published online: 28 May 2021 *

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