IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ijecbs/v33y2026i1p1-21.html

Do Managers Time Patent Filings?

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Rayeni
  • Aman Khan

Abstract

This paper shows that firms engage in window dressing by timing the date of their patent applications. In support of this argument, we find that almost 40% of firms’ yearly patents are filed in the last quarter of the calendar year. We also find that patents applied for during the last quarter have lower quality, and the window dressing effect is most pronounced in firms with the same fiscal and calendar year-ends. In addition, the pattern is prevalent among firms subject to lower external monitoring, further supporting the incentive to window dress as the underlying channel. To establish window dressing as the key mechanism behind this pattern, we use the adoption of America Invents Act as the quasi-natural experiment that has increased the costs of window dressing. Following the Act, window dressing behavior has become less prevalent.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Rayeni & Aman Khan, 2026. "Do Managers Time Patent Filings?," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 1-21, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:33:y:2026:i:1:p:1-21
    DOI: 10.1080/13571516.2025.2465254
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13571516.2025.2465254
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13571516.2025.2465254?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:33:y:2026:i:1:p:1-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIJB20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.