Inventors’ working relationships and knowledge creation: a study on patented innovation

This study explores the knowledge-creation process that arises from inventors’ working relationships and its impact on company innovation. Innovation is measured by a company’s patenting activities. Our analysis is based on an original database built using OECD micro data obtained from patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO). An empirical analysis was carried out on a body of firms located in the Italian region of Veneto. Our results reveal that the inventors’ working relationships have a significant impact on a company’s innovation – innovation which is also dependent upon both geography and timescales. Inventors’ working relationships thus produce productivity effects, in terms of patenting activity, both in the short and long term and these impacts are also dependent upon geographical distance.