The effects of compensation plans for employee inventions on R&D productivity: New evidence from Japanese panel data

Koichiro Onishi

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2012.09.001

The effects of compensation plans for employee inventions on R&D productivity: New evidence from Japanese panel data

Koichiro Onishi^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article reports the first results on how monetary compensation plans for employee inventions affect R&D productivity, based on the notable panel data of Japanese firms. The study finds that the introduction of revenue-based compensation plans that are linked to patent performance lead to an increase in the number of high cited patents, while this never leads to an increase in the number of patent applications. Furthermore, this is strongly effective in smaller firms. These results indicate that the monetary incentives based on patent performance are effective on enhancing the motivation of employee inventors.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	367-378
Number of pages	12
Journal	Research Policy
Volume	42
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2012.09.001
Publication status	Published - 2013 Mar
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Employee invention
Monetary incentive
Patent productivity
R&D

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Strategy and Management
Management Science and Operations Research
Management of Technology and Innovation

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10.1016/j.respol.2012.09.001

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title = "The effects of compensation plans for employee inventions on R&D productivity: New evidence from Japanese panel data",

abstract = "This article reports the first results on how monetary compensation plans for employee inventions affect R&D productivity, based on the notable panel data of Japanese firms. The study finds that the introduction of revenue-based compensation plans that are linked to patent performance lead to an increase in the number of high cited patents, while this never leads to an increase in the number of patent applications. Furthermore, this is strongly effective in smaller firms. These results indicate that the monetary incentives based on patent performance are effective on enhancing the motivation of employee inventors.",

keywords = "Employee invention, Monetary incentive, Patent productivity, R&D",

author = "Koichiro Onishi",

note = "Funding Information: I am grateful for the helpful comments from three anonymous referees. This article is based on the third chapter of my Ph.D. dissertation. I would like to thank my Ph.D. committee members Reiko Aoki, Sadao Nagaoka, Hiroyuki Odagiri, Hiroyuki Okamuro, and Yosuke Okada for their various suggestions. I would also like to thank the participants of the Industry and Labor Workshop held at Hitotsubashi University, especially Hiroyuki Chuma and Yoshiaki Ogura, for offering their very helpful comments. In addition, I would like to thank Akiya Nagata and Hideo Owan for providing their useful comments. I thank Yoshikuni Sato for commenting on an earlier draft of this article. This work was supported by KAKENHI (19730192). Any potential errors in this article are solely the responsibility of the author. ",

year = "2013",

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doi = "10.1016/j.respol.2012.09.001",

language = "English",

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T1 - The effects of compensation plans for employee inventions on R&D productivity

T2 - New evidence from Japanese panel data

AU - Onishi, Koichiro

N1 - Funding Information: I am grateful for the helpful comments from three anonymous referees. This article is based on the third chapter of my Ph.D. dissertation. I would like to thank my Ph.D. committee members Reiko Aoki, Sadao Nagaoka, Hiroyuki Odagiri, Hiroyuki Okamuro, and Yosuke Okada for their various suggestions. I would also like to thank the participants of the Industry and Labor Workshop held at Hitotsubashi University, especially Hiroyuki Chuma and Yoshiaki Ogura, for offering their very helpful comments. In addition, I would like to thank Akiya Nagata and Hideo Owan for providing their useful comments. I thank Yoshikuni Sato for commenting on an earlier draft of this article. This work was supported by KAKENHI (19730192). Any potential errors in this article are solely the responsibility of the author.

PY - 2013/3

Y1 - 2013/3

N2 - This article reports the first results on how monetary compensation plans for employee inventions affect R&D productivity, based on the notable panel data of Japanese firms. The study finds that the introduction of revenue-based compensation plans that are linked to patent performance lead to an increase in the number of high cited patents, while this never leads to an increase in the number of patent applications. Furthermore, this is strongly effective in smaller firms. These results indicate that the monetary incentives based on patent performance are effective on enhancing the motivation of employee inventors.

AB - This article reports the first results on how monetary compensation plans for employee inventions affect R&D productivity, based on the notable panel data of Japanese firms. The study finds that the introduction of revenue-based compensation plans that are linked to patent performance lead to an increase in the number of high cited patents, while this never leads to an increase in the number of patent applications. Furthermore, this is strongly effective in smaller firms. These results indicate that the monetary incentives based on patent performance are effective on enhancing the motivation of employee inventors.

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KW - Monetary incentive

KW - Patent productivity

KW - R&D

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The effects of compensation plans for employee inventions on R&D productivity: New evidence from Japanese panel data

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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