專利多樣性與併購機率

Abstract

公司經理人在進行決策時，公司的創新能力是重要的考量因素之一，因此過去許多文獻都在討論創新對公司決策的影響。衡量創新的指標除了研發費用、研發密度外，專利多樣性亦為衡量一間公司的創新能力的指標之一。經理人為了使公司的獲利更高、擴大市佔率可能會做出不同的決策，其中一個便是併購的決策。併購發生的原因可能是為取得目標公司的技術或市場，因此過去有許多研究在討論研發支出、研發密度等創新指標與併購之間的關聯。過往的財務文獻甚少探討專利多樣性與公司決策之間的關聯，然專利多樣性卻是衡量公司創新的另一個重要指標，且公司的創新研發係多樣化或集中與公司的決策有著密切的關聯，因此本研究旨在探討專利多樣性與併購之間的關聯。實證結果表明，當公司的專利多樣性越低 (專利越集中)，企業成為目標公司的機率越高。其中的原因可能是因為當公司的專利集中度越高，其單一專利的價值就會越高，因此越有可能被需要該專利的公司所併購。

Innovation is one of the most important considerations when a CEO makes decisions, so many studies have discussed the impact of innovation on the CEO making decisions in the past. In addition to R&D expenses and R&D density, which can measure a company's ability to innovate, the diversity of patents is also an indicator to measure a company's innovation ability. Managers make many decisions to increase company profit or expand market share such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) may occur to acquire the technology or market shares of the target company, so many studies have discussed the relationship between innovation such as R&D expenditure and R&D density and M&A in the past. The past financial literature seldom discussed the relationship between the diversity of patents and managers making decisions. The diversification or concentration of a company's innovation is highly related to the manager making decisions, so the diversity of patents is another important indicator for measuring corporate innovation, therefore, this study wants to know the relationship between the diversity of patents and mergers and acquisitions. The empirical results show that when the company's patent diversity is lower (patent concentration is more concentrated), the probability of the company becoming a target company is higher. We suggest that when a company's patent concentration is higher, the value of its single patent will be higher. So, when the company's patent concentration is higher, it will more likely be a target company.