Navigating the Markets for Technology. How Does Patent Analysis Support Partner Selection in Nanotechnology?

In this Chapter, we extend existing theory on technology commercialization to investigate the contribution of patent analysis to partner searching. We draw on the open innovation literature, resource-based view of the firm, and transaction costs, to speculate that the integration of patent analysis into partner selection choices will be of greater importance, will contribute to a broader set of market strategies’ options, and will mostly occur in technological areas characterized by strong appropriability regimes. Despite some limited empirical evidence suggesting that patent analysis can be useful in monitoring and assessing technological landscape (Abraham and Morita, 2001; Bergmann et al., 2008; Bonino, Ciaramella and Corno, 2010; Daim et al., 2006; Lee S. et al., 2009a), we know very little about the utility of patent analysis’ contributions in partner selection. This Chapter argues that distinct patent analyses enhance firms’ capabilities to search globally their potential partners and evaluate their technological relatedness or diversity to infer some aspects linked to value creation and value capture. The study is complemented with a practical application in the nanotechnology field.