Prof. Dr. Karin Hoisl

Articles in Refereed Journals

Colombo, Massimo G.; Guerini, Massimiliano; Hoisl, Karin; Zeiner, Nico (2023). The Dark Side of Signals: Patents Protecting Radical Inventions and Venture Capital Investments, Research Policy, 52 (5). DOI

• Patents are an important signal of the unobserved quality of young, innovative firms. We study patents that protect radical inventions associated with high earnings potential but also a high risk of failure. These previously disregarded signals convey positive and negative information simultaneously, i.e., strong signals that have a dark side. We argue that whether firms that send such signals are attractive investment targets for venture capital (VC) investors depends on the characteristics of the investors. Reputable VC investors are attracted to the strong quality signals of patents protecting radical inventions and are better able than other VC investors to deal with the dark side of these signals through syndication. These effects are stronger in the first financing round than in follow-on rounds, as the (positive and negative) informational value of patents protecting radical inventions diminishes over time as information asymmetries between young firms and prospective VC investors are reduced. We test these predictions using a sample of 759 young life science firms and 555 VC investors. Econometric estimates from a matching model support our predictions.

Hoisl, Karin; Kongsted, Hans Christian; Mariani, Myriam (2023). Lost Marie Curies: Parental Impact on the Probability of Becoming an Inventor, Management Science, 69 (3), 1714-1738. DOI

• This research investigates the role of parents in explaining the surprisingly low presence of women among inventors despite their increase among graduates from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. With Danish registry data on the population born between 1966 and 1985 and an experimental setting crafted on siblings’ gender composition, we find that the transmission of inventorship from parents to children disfavors daughters if they have a (second-born) brother. We complement this analysis with evidence about the role of parental factors at different stages of children’s education. Overall, our results confirm that parental role models matter for children’s education, especially at early stages and, through this, increase the probability of a child’s becoming an inventor. However, the direct transmission of inventorship that favors boys much more than girls seems to be affected by gendered expectations developed by parents about daughters’ and sons’ returns from inventorship. Our study contributes to explaining who becomes an inventor and why by adding an important boundary condition to the literature: Parents are intermediaries who, based on their own interpretation of external information about inventive jobs, contribute to create or limit opportunities for their children.

Beck, Susanne; Bergenholtz, Carsten; Bogers, Marcel; Brasseur, Tiare-Maria; Conradsen, Marie Louise; Di Marco, Diletta; Distel, Andreas P.; Dobusch, Leonhard; Dörler, Daniel; Effert, Agnes; Fecher, Benedikt; Filiou, Despoina; Frederiksen, Lars; Gillier, Thomas; Grimpe, Christoph; Gruber, Marc; Haeussler, Carolin; Heigl, Florian; Hoisl, Karin; Hyslop, Katie; Kokshagina, Olga; LaFlamme, Marcel; Lawson, Cornelia; Lifshitz-Assaf, Hila; Lukas, Wolfgang; Nordberg, Markus; Norn, Maria Theresa; Poetz, Marion; Ponti, Marisa; Pruschak, Gernot; Pujol Priego, Laia; Radziwon, Agnieszka; Rafner, Janet; Romanova, Gergana; Ruser, Alexander; Sauermann, Henry; Shah, Sonali K.; Sherson, Jacob F.; Suess-Reyes, Julia; Tucci, Christopher L.; Tuertscher, Philipp; Vedel, Jane Bjørn; Velden, Theresa; Verganti, Roberto; Wareham, Jonathan; Wiggins, Andrea; Xu, Sunny Mosangzi (2022). The Open Innovation in Science Research Field: A Collaborative Conceptualisation Approach, Industry and Innovation, 29 (2), 136-185. DOI

• Openness and collaboration in scientific research are attracting increasing attention from scholars and practitioners alike.
  However, a common understanding of these phenomena is hindered by disciplinary boundaries and disconnected research
  streams. We link dispersed knowledge on Open Innovation, Open Science, and related concepts such as Responsible Research and Innovation by proposing a unifying Open
  Innovation in Science (OIS) Research Framework. This framework captures the antecedents, contingencies, and consequences of open and collaborative practices along the entire process of
  generating and disseminating scientific insights and translating them into innovation. Moreover, it elucidates individual-, team-,
  organisation-, field-, and society-level factors shaping OIS practices. To conceptualise the framework, we employed a collaborative approach involving 47 scholars from multiple disciplines, highlighting both tensions and commonalities between existing
  approaches. The OIS Research Framework thus serves as a basis for future research, informs policy discussions, and provides guidance to scientists and practitioners.

Dorner, Matthias; Gaessler, Fabian; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Poege, Felix (2020). Filling the Gap - Firm Strategies for Human Capital Loss, Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2020 (1), 2020 (1)71. DOI

• This paper explores how the premature death of an inventor affects the productivity and career trajectories of co-inventors. To this end, we develop and analyze a dataset covering the careers of 152,350 German inventors. The data combine highly precise employer-employee data from official social security registers with patent office information covering the period from 1980-2014. Departing from 799 registered premature deaths of inventors and the same number of matched inventors, we study how co-inventors were affected by the death of their peers. Using a difference-in-differences and an event study design, we investigate the reaction of the co-inventors' patenting activities, career advancement and job mobility. Using a number of measures and robustness checks, our results show that the premature death of a co-inventor reduces the productivity of the surviving co-inventors. The effect sets in immediately and survivors do not seem to recover from the shock in the five years following. We argue that employers will seek to retain co-inventors under certain conditions in order to continue lines of research and invention. The empirical results confirm our expectations: surviving inventors are significantly less likely to move to a different employer and are more likely to be promoted compared to inventors in the control group. These effects seem to diminish after about two years."

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Steinle, Christian (2018). Network Structure and Inventive Performance, Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018 (1). DOI

• The goal of this paper is to analyze how different structural configurations of networks stimulate invention activities, i.e., whether they increase the quantity or the quality of patented inventions. We present theoretical arguments implying that the strength of ties is more important for inventive quality, and the size of a network is more important for inventive quantity. We base our analysis on original survey data obtained from 1,204 inventors listed on European patent applications of companies active in clean technology, nanotechnology, and mechanical engineering. The survey data were matched with register information covering 15,168 patent applications filed at the European Patent Office. We find that the size of the network and the strength of the ties are positively related to invention quantity and quality. After instrumenting the endogenous network variables, we find that not considering endogeneity leads to an overestimation of the effect of the network size and an underestimation of the effect of the strength of the network ties. Additionally, after instrumenting the endogenous variables, we find that whereas the size of a network is equally important for invention quantity and quality, the strength of network ties is considerably more important (times 1.6) for quality than for quantity.

Hoisl, Karin; Harhoff, Dietmar; Dorner, Matthias; Hinz, Tina; Bender, Stefan (2017). Social Ties and Patent Quality Signals – Evidence from East German Inventor Migration, Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016 (1). DOI

• We study the impact of social ties and publicly observable performance signals on the mobility of knowledge workers. In our empirical setting we exploit the fall of the Iron Curtain as a natural experiment for the migration decision of East German inventors. We identify 21,935 East German Inventors via their patenting track records prior to 1990 and social security records in the pan-German labor market. By modeling their mobility decision after 1989, we find that West regions with more pronounced social ties attracted more inventors. However, inventors with better performance indicators prior to 1990 are substantially less dependent on these social ties for their migration decision. We find additional evidence that the same group of inventors manage to enter regional labor markets that fit significantly better to their origin region in East Germany. We conclude that social ties support labor market access while visible labor market signals reduce the dependence on these ties
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Hoisl, Karin; Gruber, Marc; Conti, Annamaria (2017). R&D Team Diversity and Performance in Hypercompetitive Environments, Strategic Management Journal, 38 (7), 1455-1477. DOI

• This article examines the effects of an R&D team's composition on its performance outcomes in hypercompetition. The fundamental feature of firms in hypercompetitive settings is that they are constantly challenged to improve their competitiveness in a relentless race to outperform one another. Analyzing a unique data set from the Formula 1 motorsport racing industry, we find an inverse U-shaped relationship between team diversity in task-related experience and performance an important result that diverges from well-established theories developed in more stable environments. Fundamentally, we show that the role of R&D team experience diversity varies depending on the size of the organizations in which R&D teams operate. While we find a moderating effect for firm age, this effect is not as robust as that of firm size.

Hoisl, Karin; Mariani, Myriam (2017). It’s a Man’s Job: Income and the Gender Gap in Industrial Research, Management Science, 63 (3), 766-790. DOI

• This study examines differences in income and job performance between women and men in creative, highly skilled jobs tasked with achieving technological inventions. By building on data pertaining to 9,692 inventors from 23 countries, this study shows that female inventors represent only 4.2% of total inventors, and they earn about 14% less than their male peers. The gap persists even when controlling for sources of heterogeneity, the selection of inventors into types of jobs and tasks, and potential parenthood, instrumented by exploiting a source of variation related to religious practices. The income gap is not associated with differences in the quality of the inventions that female and male inventors produce. Thus, even in this human capital–intensive profession, where capabilities and education are important assets, and productivity differentials can be observed, women earn less than men, though they contribute to the development of high-quality inventions as much as men do.

Zwick, Thomas; Frosch, Katharina; Hoisl, Karin; Harhoff, Dietmar (2017). The Power of Individual-Level Drivers of Inventive Performance, Research Policy, 46 (1), 121-137. DOI

• Based on an established theoretical framework of the drivers of inventive performance, the so-called KSAO (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other) factors, this paper seeks to explain empirically the performance of inventors throughout their careers. We combine survey information spanning the inventors’ entire careers and psychometric test evidence, with patent history data for more than 1,000 inventors. We also control for variables that have traditionally been included in estimations of inventive performance such as inventor age and a broad list of applicant institution-, technology-, patent-, and period-related information. We show that educational level, skills acquired during the career, personality traits, career motivations, cognitive abilities, and cognitive problem-solving style are significantly related to inventive performance.
• Also published as ZEW Discussion Paper No. 15080

Torrisi, Salvatore; Gambardella, Alfonso; Giuri, Paola; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Mariani, Myriam (2016). Used, Blocking and Sleeping Patents: Empirical Evidence from a Large-Scale Inventor Survey, Research Policy, 45 (7), 1374-1385. DOI

• This paper employs data from a large-scale survey (InnoS&T) of inventors in Europe, the USA, and Japan who were listed in patent applications filed at the European Patent Office with priority years between 2003 and 2005. We provide evidence regarding the reasons for patenting and the ways in which patents are being utilized. A substantial share of patents is neither used internally nor for market transactions, which confirms the importance of strategic patenting and inefficiency in the management of intellectual property. We investigate different types of unused patents—unused blocking patents and sleeping patents. We also examine the association between used and unused patents and their characteristics such as family size, scope, generality and overlapping claims, technology area, type of applicant, and the competitive environment from where these patents originate. We discuss our results and derive some implications for innovation and patent policy.

Hoisl, Karin; Stelzer, Tobias; Biala, Stefanie (2015). Forecasting Technology Discontinuities in the ICT Industry, Research Policy, 44 (2), 522-532.

• Building on the existing literature on evolutionary innovation and technological change, this paper aims to identify potential signals of technological discontinuities and to obtain assessments of experts to what extent these signals help them to predict discontinuities. Furthermore, we analyze whether internal experts (experts employed with firms) and external experts (e.g., consultants) differ in the importance they attribute to signals as predictors of technological discontinuities. The empirical analysis is based on a unique dataset obtained from a conjoint analysis conducted with 29 experts in the ICT industry. The conjoint approach allows for a simulation of the forecasting process and considers utility trade-offs. The results show that for both types of experts the perceived benefit of users most highly contributes to predicting technological discontinuities. Internal experts assign more importance to legal frameworks (e.g., standards) as signals helping them to predict technological discontinuities than external experts. The latter, in turn, assign more importance to profit margins and the recombination potential of technologies than their internal counterparts. Our results add important insights to the literature on R&D and innovation management.

Wagner, Stefan; Hoisl, Karin; Grid, Thomas (2014). Overcoming Localization of Knowledge – The Role of Professional Service Firms, Strategic Management Journal, 35 (11), 1671-1688. DOI

• The literature on organizational learning asserts that external learning is often limited geographically and technologically. We scrutinize to what extent organizations acquire external knowledge by accessing external knowledge repositories. We argue that professional service firms (PSFs) grant access to nonlocalized knowledge repositories and thereby not only facilitate external learning but also help to overcome localization. Focusing on patent law firms, we test our predictions using a unique dataset of 544,820 pairs of European patent applications. Analyzing patterns of knowledge flows captured in patent citations, we find that accessing a PSF's repository facilitates the acquisition of external knowledge. As the effect is more pronounced for knowledge that is distant to a focal organization, we conclude that having access to a knowledge repository compensates for localization disadvantages.

Hoisl, Karin; Davis, Lee N.; Davis, Jerome (2013). Leisure time invention, Organization Science, 24 (5), 1439-1458.

Gruber, Marc; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin (2013). Knowledge Recombination Across Technological Boundaries: Scientists vs. Engineers, Management Science, 59 (4), 837-851. DOI

• Building on the seminal work of Thomas J. Allen, we contribute to the emerging microlevel theory of knowledge recombination by examining how individual-level characteristics of inventors affect the breadth of their technological recombinations. Our data set combines information from 30,550 European patents with matched survey data obtained from 1,880 inventors. The analysis supports the view that inventors with a scientific education are more likely to generate patents that span technological boundaries (in our case, 30 broad, top-level technological domains) than inventors with an engineering degree. A doctoral degree is associated with increased recombination breadth for all groups of inventors. The breadth of an inventor's technological recombinations diminishes with increasing temporal distance to his education, but the differences between scientists and engineers persist over time. Our findings provide several new insights for research on inventors, the literature on organizational learning and innovation, and strategy research.

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Reichl, Bettina; Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno van (2009). Patent Validation at the Country Level—The Role of Fees and Translation Costs, Research Policy, 38 (9), 1423-1437. DOI

Giuri, Paola; Mariani, Myriam; Brusoni, Stefano; Crespi, Gustavo; Francoz, Dominique; Gambardella, Alfonso; Garcia-Fontes, Walter; Geuna, Aldo; Gonzales, Raul; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Le Bas, Christian; Luzzi, Alessandra; Magazzini, Laura; Nesta, Lionel; Nomaler, Önder; Palomeras, Neus; Patel, Pari; Romanelli, Marzia; Verspagen, Bart (2007). Inventors and Invention Processes in Europe: Results from the PatVal-EU Survey, Research Policy, 36 (8), 1107-1127. DOI

• Based on a survey of the inventors of 9017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents.

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin (2007). Institutionalized Incentives for Ingenuity—Patent Value and the German Employees’ Inventions Act, Research Policy, 36 (8), 1143-1162. DOI

• Germany is one of few countries in which the monetary compensation for inventors is not only determined by negotiations between employer and employee-inventor, but also by relatively precise legal provisions. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of the German Employees’ Inventions Act (GEIA) and discuss which incentives it creates. We rely on responses from a recent survey of 3350 German inventors to test hypotheses regarding this institution. We conclude from our data that the law creates substantial monetary rewards for productive inventors. The qualitative responses from our survey confirm this view, but also point to a number of dysfunctional effects.

Contributions to Collected Editions

Hoisl, Karin; Lerchenmüller, Carolin; Lerchenmueller, Marc; Schmallenbach, Leo (2022). The Power of Attention: Early Indications of How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected the Direction of Scientific Research in the Life Sciences, in: Carsten Fink et al. (ed.), Global Innovation Responses to Covid-19, 163-173. CEPR Press: Paris; London 2022.

• E-Book

Bechthold, Laura; Chugunova, Marina; Friess, Svenja; Hoisl, Karin; Rose, Michael (2021). Women in Creative Labor: Inventors, Entrepreneurs and Academics, in: Ulla Weber (ed.), Fundamental Questions. Gender Dimensions in Max Planck Research Projects (Schriften zur Gleichstellung, 51), 135-154. Baden-Baden: Nomos. DOI

Hoisl, Karin (2020). Employee Mobility, Knowledge Spillovers, and the Appropriation of Returns to Innovation, in: Daniel Tzabbar, Bruno Cirillo (eds.), Employee Mobility: A Conversation Across Disciplines and Setting a New Agenda (Advances in Strategic Management, 41), 267-270. Bingley, UK: Emerald. DOI

• This chapter provides a briefly summary of the main message and contribution of Martin C. Goossen's and Gianluca Carnabuci's paper “When Employees Walk Out the Door, Their Memories Remain: The Effect of Inventor Mobility on Patent Renewal”. It situates the paper and its contribution in the broader literature and provides critical areas and possible avenues for future research.

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Van der Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno; Vandeput, Charlotte (2016). Languages, Fees and the International Scope of Patenting, in: Victor Ginsburgh, Shlomo Weber (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language, 403-422. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI

• Recent developments in patenting activity are the subject of a growing literature. Existing research contributes to a better understanding of the incentives that drive economic agents to rely on the patent system (e.g. Cohen et al., 2000; Arundel, 2001; Blind et al., 2006; Peeters and van Pottelsberghe, 2006; von Graevenitz et al., 2013) and on potential implications of their behaviour for the effectiveness of the patent system. Lately, a number of researchers have started to explore the design of the patent system itself, i.e. the role of fees and costs of patenting (Archontopoulos et al., 2007; Harhoff et al., 2009; de Rassenfosse and van Pottelsberghe, 2013), the duration of examination (Thomas, 2010; Harhoff, 2011), as well as patent office governance and management (Friebel et al., 2006).
• Also published as: Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 15-04

Harhoff, Dietmar; Schulz, C.; Hoisl, Karin (2007). Intellectual Property, in: Hagen Hof, U. Wengenroth (eds.), Innovationsforschung - Ansätze, Methoden, Grenzen und Perspektiven (Innovationsforschung, 1), 161-170. Hamburg: LIT Verlag.

Further Publications, Press Articles, Interviews

Webb, Colin; Dernis, Hélène; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin (2005). Analysing European and International Patent Citations - A Set of EPO Patent Database Building Blocks (STI Working Paper./9). Paris: OECD.

• http://www.oecd.org/sti/35520805.pdf

Discussion Papers

Poege, Felix; Gaessler, Fabian; Hoisl, Karin; Harhoff, Dietmar; Dorner, Matthias (2022). Filling the Gap: The Consequences of Collaborator Loss in Corporate R&D, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 22-17.

• We examine how collaborator loss affects knowledge workers in corporate R&D. We argue that such a loss affects the remaining collaborators not only by reducing their team-specific capital (as argued in the prior literature) but also by increasing their bargaining power over the employer, who is in need of filling the gap left by the lost collaborator to ensure the continuation of R&D projects. This shift in bargaining power may, in turn, lead to benefits, such as additional resources or more attractive working conditions. These benefits can partially compensate for the negative effect of reduced team-specific capital on productivity and influence the career trajectories of the remaining collaborators. We empirically investigate the consequences of collaborator loss by exploiting 845 unexpected deaths of active inventors. We find that inventor death has a moderate negative effect on the productivity of the remaining collaborators. This negative effect disappears when we focus on the remaining collaborators who work for the same employer as the deceased inventor. Moreover, this group is more likely to be promoted and less likely to leave their current employer.
• Available at SSRN

Colombo, Massimo; Guerini, Massimiliano; Hoisl, Karin; Zeiner, Nico (2019). The Dark Side of Signals: Patents Protecting Radical Inventions and Venture Capital Investments.

• Also published in: Research Policy Volume 52, Issue 5, June 2023, 104741

Förderer, Jens; Hoisl, Karin (2019). Is Status Detrimental to Distributed Innovation?.

Hoisl, Karin; Mariani, Myriam (2019). Rewards to Patents and the Recognition of Women’s Inventive Achievements.

Lerchenmüller, Marc; Hoisl, Karin; Schmallenbach, Leo (2019). Diffuse Status: The Effect of Female Mentorship on the Next Generation of Life Scientists.

Hoisl, Karin; Wagner, Stefan (2019). Me and I – How Personality Shapes Inventive Performance.

Heite, Jonas; Hoisl, Karin; Lakhani, Karim (2019). Performance in Contests: The Role of Risk and Confidence.

Lerchenmüller, Marc; Hoisl, Karin; Schmallenbach, Leo (2019). Homophily, Biased Attention, and the Gender Gap in Science.

• How does homophilous collaboration influence women's early career progress? To answer this question, we turn to a granular dataset of 3,233 highly qualified junior life scientists who receive mentored, early career sponsorship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and analyze their publication trajectories as careers unfold. Employing a matched sample approach that exploits variance in the sets of research contacts the junior scientists start out with, we distinguish sex differences in collaboration choices from potential differences in collaboration opportunities. We document that outsized gender homophily among women exists and primarily stems from how female leaders of scientific projects assemble their teams. Women continue same-sex collaborations as lead authors at twice the rate compared to men, on average, and in particular when the mentor is part of the author team or when the focal junior scientist leads the team. As such, systematic gender homophily among female scientists may engender the sponsorship and resources needed to motivate young women to join and pursue an academic career. On the flip side, we show that author teams led by women receive 11% less citations, on average, and up to 29% less citations for work of comparable caliber published in the most influential journals. Taken together, while women's propensity to working with other women may support early career researchers, biased attention to women's work may harm careers and, in particular, women who publish in the highest-impact journals and who would otherwise be poised to narrowing gender gaps at more senior career stages.

Dorner, Matthias; Harhoff, Dietmar; Gaessler, Fabian; Hoisl, Karin; Poege, Felix (2018). Linked Inventor Biography Data 1980-2014, FDZ Data Report, No. 03/2018.

• This data report describes the Linked Inventor Biography Data 1980-2014 (INV-BIO ADIAB 8014), its generation using record linkage and machine learning methods as well as how to access the data via the FDZ.
• Dieser Datenreport beschreibt die verknüpften Erfinderbiografiedaten 1980-2014 (INV-BIO ADIAB 8014), deren Erstellung mittels Record Linkage und Machine Learning Methoden sowie den Datenzugang über das FDZ.
• http://doku.iab.de/fdz/reporte/2018/DR_03-18_EN.pdf

Bender, Stefan; Dorner, Matthias; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hinz, Tina; Hoisl, Karin (2016). Social Ties for Labor Market Access - Lessons from the Migration of East German Inventors, CEPR Discussion Paper, No. 11601.

• We study the impact of social ties on the migration of inventors from East to West Germany, using the fall of the Iron Curtain and German reunification as a natural experiment. We identify East German inventors via their patenting track records prior to 1990 and their social security records in the German labor market after reunification. Modeling inventor migration to West German regions after 1990, we find that Western regions with stronger historically determined social ties across the former East-West border attracted more inventors after the fall of the Iron Curtain than regions without such ties. However, mobility decisions made by inventors with outstanding patenting track records (star inventors) were not impacted by social ties. We conclude that social ties support labor market access for migrant inventors and determine regional choices while dependence on these ties is substantially reduced for star performers.
• http://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=11601

Dorner, Matthias; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hinz, Tina; Hoisl, Karin; Bender, Stefan (2016). Social Ties for Labor Market Access – Lessons from the Migration of East German Inventors, IAB Discussion Paper, 41/2016.

• Diese Studie untersucht den Einfluss von sozialen Beziehungen auf die Arbeitsmarktmigration von in der DDR aktiven Erfindern, die ab 1990 nach Westdeutschland abgewandert sind. Wir verwenden den Fall des Eisernen Vorhangs sowie die anschließende deutsch-deutsche Wiedervereinigung als natürliches Experiment. Unsere Analysepopulation umfasst Erfinder aus den DDR-Patentdaten vor 1990, welche mit Sozialversicherungsdaten im wiedervereinigten Deutschland verknüpft werden konnten. Wir modellieren Migrationsflüsse dieser Erfinder in westdeutsche Regionen und finden, dass regionale Arbeitsmärkte, die stärker ausgeprägte soziale Beziehungen vor der Wende aufwiesen, die bevorzugten Wanderungsziele von Erfindern waren. Zusätzlich zeigen unsere Analysen, dass "Star-Erfinder", die an potenziell wertvolleren DDR-Erfindungen beteiligt waren, in ihren Migrationsentscheidungen nicht von sozialen Beziehungen abhängig waren. Wir schließen daraus, dass soziale Beziehungen Migration positiv unterstützen und auch die Wahl des regionalen Arbeitsmarktes beeinflussen. Allerdings können hierbei personenbezogene Produktivitätsindikatoren die Abhängigkeit und Nutzung von soziale Beziehungen substituieren.
• http://www.iab.de/183/section.aspx/Publikation/k161207304

Zwick, Thomas; Frosch, Katharina; Hoisl, Karin; Harhoff, Dietmar (2015). The Power of Individual-Level Drivers of Inventive Performance, ZEW Discussion Paper, No. 15-080. Mannheim: ZEW, Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung.

• Based on an established theoretical framework of the drivers of inventive performance, the so-called KSAO (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other) factors, this paper seeks to explain empirically the performance of inventors throughout their careers. We combine survey information spanning the
  inventors’ entire careers and psychometric test evidence, with patent history data for more than 1,000 inventors. We also control for variables that have traditionally been included in estimations of inventive performance such as inventor age and a broad list of applicant institution-, technology-, patent-, and period-related information. We show that educational level, skills acquired during the career, personality traits, career motivations, cognitive abilities, and cognitive problem-solving style are significantly related to inventive performance.
• http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp15080.pdf
• Also published in: Research Policy, 46 (2017) 1, 121 - 137

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno van; Vandeput, Charlotte (2015). Languages, Fees and the International Scope of Patenting, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper, No. 15-04. DOI

• This paper analyzes firms’ choices regarding the geographic scope of patent protection within the European patent system. We develop an econometric model at the patent level to quantify the impact of office fees and translation costs on firms’ decision to validate a patent in a particular country once it has been granted by the EPO. These costs have been disregarded in previous studies. The results suggest that both translation costs and fees for validation and renewals have a strong influence on the behavior of applicants.
• Also published in: V. Ginsburgh, S. Weber (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 403-422

Frosch, Katharina; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Steinle, Christian; Zwick, Thomas (2015). Humankapitalakkumulation von deutschen Erfindern in Schlüsseltechnologien, Praxisbericht zum DFG-Projekt ”Clean Technology-Innovationen in Deutschland: Humankapitalakkumulation bei heterogenen Wissensinputs“ (GZ: ZW 172/2-1).

Frosch, Katharina; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Steinle, Christian; Zwick, Thomas (2015). Clean Technology Innovations in Germany: Human Capital Accumulation under Heterogenous Knowledge Inputs, Daten- und Methodenbericht zum DFG-Projekt ”Clean Technology-Innovationen in Deutschland: Humankapitalakkumulation bei heterogenen Wissensinputs“ (GZ: ZW 172/2-1).

Frosch, Katharina; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Steinle, Christian; Zwick, Thomas (2015). Candidate Screening for the Recruitment of Critical Research and Development Workers – A Report and Preliminary Results with Evidence from Experimental Data from German High-Tech Firms, ZEW Discussion Paper, No. 15-002.

• The report focuses on résumé-based screening strategies for the recruitment of highly qualified research and development (R&D) workers (critical R&D workers) in high-tech firms. We investigate which kinds of professional background, job-related experience, motivations, specific skills, and previous inventive activity make a candidate attractive for firms specializing in clean technology or mechanical elements. The report is based on a combination of survey and experimental data collected from 194 HR decision makers in German high-tech firms and from 89 technology experts in the clean technology and mechanical elements fields. A mixed logit model is used to analyse hiring preferences because this model allows us to deal with repeated choices. We find that HR decision makers prefer candidates with technology-specific patenting experience, an engineering background, analytical thinking skills, and a strong desire to develop path-breaking technologies. Furthermore, no one-size-fits-all candidate exists that is equally preferred in both technology fields. HR decision makers in mechanical element firms prefer specialists to generalists, whereas those in clean technology attach special importance to a candidate’s orientation towards environmental concerns and sustainability.
• http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp15002.pdf

Frosch, Katharina; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Steinle, Christian; Zwick, Thomas (2015). Individual Determinants of Inventor Productivity: Report and Preliminary Results with Evidence from Linked Human Capital and Patent Data, ZEW Discussion Paper, No. 15-001.

• This report offers new insights into the drivers of inventor productivity at the individual level. It includes well-known drivers, such as inventor age and education, and controls for inventor team size, and firm/applicant information, as well as period and technology field effects derived from patent data. In addition, it adds inventor characteristics that have been largely neglected in existing studies on inventor productivity, such as the breadth of work experience, divergent thinking skills, cognitive problem-solving skills, the use of knowledge sourced from networks within and outside of the inventors’ field of expertise, and personality traits. The empirical model draws on a new dataset that matches information about inventors’ human capital, such as creative skills, personality traits, networks, and career biographies (collected with a self-administered survey) with patenting histories for 1932 German inventors between the years 1978 and 2012 for clean technology, nanotechnology, and mechanical elements. Our results indicate that the additional inventor characteristics double the proportion of total variation of productivity explained by individual characteristics. Furthermore, we find differences in the importance of individual characteristics across industries and along the productivity distribution, between more and less productive inventors.
• http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp15001.pdf

Hoisl, Karin; de Rassenfosse, Gaétan (2015). Knowledge Fit and the Productivity Gain from Employee Mobility.

Hoisl, Karin; Davis, Lee; Davis, Jerry (2015). How are Externally Sourced Inventions Commercialized? (Status: Submitted).

Harhoff, Dietmar; Heibel, M.C.; Hoisl, Karin (2014). The Impact of Network Structure and Network Behavior on Inventor Productivity.

Gambardella, Alfonso; Giuri, Paola; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Mariani, Myriam; Nagaoka, S; Torrisi, S. (2014). Invention Processes and Economic Uses of Patents: Evidence from the PatVal 2 Survey.

Dorner, Matthias; Bender, Stefan; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Scioch, Patrycja (2014). A Technology-Industry Correspondence Based on Linked Inventor-Establishment Data.

Dorner, Matthias; Bender, Stefan; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Scioch, Patrycja (2014). The MPI-IC-IAB-Inventor data 2002 (MIID 2002): Record-linkage of Patent Register Data with Labor Market Biography Data of the IAB, FDZ-Methodenreport, 06/2014, Nuremberg.

• Der Methodenreport beschreibt die Erstellung eines verknüpften Erfinder-Betriebs-Datensatzes, den MPI-IC-IAB Erfinder Daten 2002 (MIID 2002), unter Verwendung von Methoden des Record Linkage. Der Datensatz verknüpft Patent-Register-Daten zu Patentanmeldungen von in Deutschland wohnhafter Erfindern beim Deutschen Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA) im Jahr 2002 mit Erwerbsbiografiedaten zu sozialversicherungspflichtig Beschäftigten des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB). Insgesamt umfasst der Datensatz 46,180 eindeutig identifizierte Beschäftigten-Erfinder Paare und die von diesen Personen im Jahr 2002 angemeldeten 42,435 Patente. Durch das breite Spektrum an Variablen, das eine Vielzahl von Individual- und Betriebsmerkmalen mit Informationen zu Patenten und Erfindern umfasst, bieten die MIID 2002 Daten eine neuartige, auf administrativen Daten beruhende Datenbasis zur Erforschung von Erfindern und deren Patentaktivitäten im Kontext des Arbeitsmarktes

Dorner, Matthias; Bender, Stefan; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin (2014). Patterns and Determinants of Inventor Mobility - Evidence from the Employment Biographies of Inventors in Germany (unpublished manuscript).

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, B. (2009). Languages, Fees and the Regional Scope of Patenting in Europe.

Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Webb, Colin (2009). European Patent Citations – How to Count and How to Interpret them, unpublished manuscript, University of Munich.

Von Graevenitz, Georg; Wagner, Stefan; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hall, Bronwyn H.; Hoisl, Karin; Giuri, Paola; Gambardella, Alfonso (2007). The Strategic Use of Patents and Its Implications for Enterprise and Competition Policies, Report ENTR/05/82 for DG Enterprise, European Commission.