The conventional wisdom is that the formation of patent pools is welfare enhancing when patents are complementary, since the pool avoids a double-marginalization problem associated with independent licensing. This conventional wisdom relies on the effects that pooling has on downstream prices....

We develop a theory of innovation for entry and sale into oligopoly, and show that inventions of higher quality are more likely to be sold (or licensed) to an incumbent due to strategic product market effects on the sales price. Such preemptive acquisitions by incumbents are shown to stimulate...

When and how do entrepreneurs sell their inventions? To address this issue, we develop an endogenous entry-sale asymmetric information oligopoly model. We show that lowquality inventions are sold directly or used for entry. Inventors who sell post-entry use entry to credibly reveal information...

In Chapter 2 we saw that the most economical locations for transactions in a task network are the so-called thin crossing points—places where transfers are easy to define, count and pay for. However, in many places in the task network, transfers of material, energy, and information are so...

Functional analysis as set forth in the last chapter decomposes a technical system into functional components that do things to advance the system’s purpose and the goals of its designers. Functional analysis in turn can be used to construct value structure maps of technical systems. Such maps...

This paper argues that the sharing economy — through the use of the Internet and real time reputational feedback mechanisms — is providing a solution to the “lemons problem” that many regulations, and regulators, have spent decades attempting to overcome. Section I provides an overview...

We develop a model of entrepreneurial innovation for entry and sale into oligopoliessuitable for welfare analysis. We show that the expected consumer welfare can be higherunder commercialization by sale than under commercialization by entry despite increasedmarket power in the product market....

Most OECD-countries provide financial subsidy programs to stimulate the entry and growth of small entrepreneurial firms. However, the best strategy for innovative entrepreneurs might be to make an early entry to signal innovation quality and overcome asymmetry problems. Thereby, entrepreneurs...

When should entrepreneurs choose to enter the market with a start-up? And when should they sell their invention or business idea? New research on how entrepreneurs decide between entry and sale offers significant insights for policy makers concerned about economic welfare. At first glance, the...

We find that the positive impact of a firm’ own innovations on its own growth is similar in more and less competitive industries. In contrast, the negative impact of rival firms’ innovations on a firm’s growth (creative destruction) is significantly stronger in less competitive industries,...