IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/regstd/v56y2022i2p190-209.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trademarks as an indicator of regional innovation: evidence from Japanese prefectures

Author

Listed:
  • Jörn Block
  • Christian Fisch
  • Kenta Ikeuchi
  • Masatoshi Kato

Abstract

Regional science has long been concerned with measuring the spatial distribution of innovation activity. We introduce trademarks as a new indicator for regional innovation and argue that they are particularly useful to measure the ‘soft’ side of innovation that is difficult to capture with conventional indicators. We explore the spatial distribution of trademarks using a detailed and comprehensive dataset of 47 Japanese prefectures from 1999 to 2012. In addition to mapping differences in trademarking across regions, we identify correlates at the regional level that provide insights into determinants of regional innovation measured via trademarks. For example, regional trademark activity positively correlates with population density, income per capita, entrepreneurship rate, the number of universities, and strong private service and finance sectors. Overall, the results reveal associations unique to trademarks that other measures of innovation cannot uncover. Our findings contribute to research in regional science and the evolving literature on trademarks.

Suggested Citation

  • Jörn Block & Christian Fisch & Kenta Ikeuchi & Masatoshi Kato, 2022. "Trademarks as an indicator of regional innovation: evidence from Japanese prefectures," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 190-209, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:56:y:2022:i:2:p:190-209
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2021.1887843
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00343404.2021.1887843
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00343404.2021.1887843?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuel Trajtenberg, 1990. "A Penny for Your Quotes: Patent Citations and the Value of Innovations," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 172-187, Spring.
    2. Michael Porter, 2003. "The Economic Performance of Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 549-578.
    3. Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie & Didier François, 2009. "The Cost Factor in Patent Systems," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 329-355, December.
    4. Christine Greenhalgh & Mark Rogers, 2012. "Trade Marks and Performance in Services and Manufacturing Firms: Evidence of Schumpeterian Competition through Innovation," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 45(1), pages 50-76, February.
    5. Hugo Pinto & Manuel Fernandez-Esquinas & Elvira Uyarra, 2015. "Universities and Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) as Sources of Knowledge for Innovative Firms in Peripheral Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(11), pages 1873-1891, November.
    6. De Silva, Dakshina G. & McComb, Robert P., 2012. "Geographic concentration and high tech firm survival," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 691-701.
    7. Janusz A. Ordover, 1991. "A Patent System for Both Diffusion and Exclusion," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 43-60, Winter.
    8. Meindert Flikkema & Ard-Pieter De Man & Carolina Castaldi, 2014. "Are Trademark Counts a Valid Indicator of Innovation? Results of an In-Depth Study of New Benelux Trademarks Filed by SMEs," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 310-331, May.
    9. Flikkema, Meindert & Castaldi, Carolina & de Man, Ard-Pieter & Seip, Marcel, 2019. "Trademarks’ relatedness to product and service innovation: A branding strategy approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1340-1353.
    10. Seip, Marcel & Castaldi, Carolina & Flikkema, Meindert & De Man, Ard-Pieter, 2018. "The timing of trademark application in innovation processes," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 72, pages 34-45.
    11. Goto, Akira & Motohashi, Kazuyuki, 2007. "Construction of a Japanese Patent Database and a first look at Japanese patenting activities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 1431-1442, November.
    12. Samuel Kortum & Josh Lerner, 2000. "Assessing the Contribution of Venture Capital to Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(4), pages 674-692, Winter.
    13. Joern H. Block & Christian O. Fisch & Mirjam van Praag, 2017. "The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 61-95, January.
    14. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 1989. "Patents' Innovative Activity," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 373-376, Oct-Dec.
    15. Carsten Fink & Beata Smarzynska Javorcik & Mariana Spatareanu, 2005. "Income-Related Biases in International Trade: What Do Trademark Registration Data Tell Us?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(1), pages 79-103, April.
    16. Yipeng Liu & Christoph Lattemann & Yijun Xing & David Dorawa, 2019. "The emergence of collaborative partnerships between knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) and product companies: the case of Bremen, Germany," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 376-387, March.
    17. Peter Wood, 2009. "Service Competitiveness and Urban Innovation Policies in the UK: The Implications of the 'London Paradox'," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(8), pages 1047-1059.
    18. Tim Reiffenstein, 2009. "Specialization, Centralization, and the Distribution of Patent Intermediaries in the USA and Japan," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 571-588.
    19. Michael Fritsch & Viktor Slavtchev, 2011. "Determinants of the Efficiency of Regional Innovation Systems," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 905-918.
    20. Rosina Moreno & Raffaele Paci & Stefano Usai, 2005. "Spatial Spillovers and Innovation Activity in European Regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(10), pages 1793-1812, October.
    21. Fumi Kitagawa, 2005. "Regionalization of Innovation Policies: The Case of Japan," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 601-618, June.
    22. Mendonca, Sandro & Pereira, Tiago Santos & Godinho, Manuel Mira, 2004. "Trademarks as an indicator of innovation and industrial change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1385-1404, November.
    23. Motohashi, Kazuyuki, 2005. "University-industry collaborations in Japan: The role of new technology-based firms in transforming the National Innovation System," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 583-594, June.
    24. Paul H. Jensen & Elizabeth Webster, 2009. "Another Look At The Relationship Between Innovation Proxies," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 252-269, September.
    25. Asanuma, Banri, 1989. "Manufacturer-supplier relationships in Japan and the concept of relation-specific skill," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, March.
    26. Castaldi, Carolina, 2018. "To trademark or not to trademark: The case of the creative and cultural industries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 606-616.
    27. Amara, Nabil & Landry, Réjean & Traoré, Namatié, 2008. "Managing the protection of innovations in knowledge-intensive business services," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1530-1547, October.
    28. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 1989. "Patents as a Measure of Innovative Activity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 171-180, August.
    29. Zoltan J. Acs & Luc Anselin & Attila Varga, 2008. "Patents and Innovation Counts as Measures of Regional Production of New Knowledge," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 11, pages 135-151, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    30. Fumi Kitagawa, 2007. "The Regionalization of Science and Innovation Governance in Japan?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(8), pages 1099-1114.
    31. Hiroyuki Okamuro & Junichi Nishimura & Fumi Kitagawa, 2019. "Multilevel policy governance and territorial adaptability: evidence from Japanese SME innovation programmes," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(6), pages 803-814, June.
    32. Acs, Zoltan J & Audretsch, David B, 1989. "Patents as a Measure of Innovative Activity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 171-180.
    33. Elsie L. Echeverri-Carroll, 1996. "Flexible production, electronic linkages, and large firms: evidence from the automobile industry," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 30(1), pages 135-152.
    34. Michael Fritsch & David J. Storey, 2014. "Entrepreneurship in a Regional Context: Historical Roots, Recent Developments and Future Challenges," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 939-954, June.
    35. Henrekson, Magnus & Sanandaji, Tino, 2019. "Measuring Entrepreneurship: Do Established Metrics Capture High-Impact Schumpeterian Entrepreneurship?," Working Paper Series 1270, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    36. Michael Peneder, 2009. "The impact of venture capital on innovation behaviour and firm growth," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 83-107, November.
    37. Eiji Yamamura & Tetsushi Sonobe & Keijiro Otsuka, 2005. "Time path in innovation, imitation, and growth: the case of the motorcycle industry in postwar Japan," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 169-186, January.
    38. Goto, Akira, 2000. "Japan's National Innovation System: Current Status and Problems," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 16(2), pages 103-113, Summer.
    39. Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), 2010. "Handbook of the Economics of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    40. Muller, Emmanuel & Zenker, Andrea, 2001. "Business services as actors of knowledge transformation: the role of KIBS in regional and national innovation systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1501-1516, December.
    41. Florida, Richard & Kenney, Martin, 1988. "Venture capital and high technology entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 301-319.
    42. Robert Huggins & David Waite & Max Munday, 2018. "New directions in regional innovation policy: a network model for generating entrepreneurship and economic development," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(9), pages 1294-1304, September.
    43. Hipp, Christiane & Grupp, Hariolf, 2005. "Innovation in the service sector: The demand for service-specific innovation measurement concepts and typologies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 517-535, May.
    44. Nagaoka, Sadao & Motohashi, Kazuyuki & Goto, Akira, 2010. "Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1083-1127, Elsevier.
    45. Barroso, Alicia & Giarratana, Marco S. & Pasquini, Martina, 2019. "Product portfolio performance in new foreign markets: The EU trademark dual system," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 11-21.
    46. James Love & Stephen Roper & Nola Hewitt-Dundas, 2010. "Service Innovation, Embeddedness and Business Performance: Evidence from Northern Ireland," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(8), pages 983-1004.
    47. Cohen, Wesley M. & Goto, Akira & Nagata, Akiya & Nelson, Richard R. & Walsh, John P., 2002. "R&D spillovers, patents and the incentives to innovate in Japan and the United States," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1349-1367, December.
    48. Kadri Männasoo & Heili Hein & Raul Ruubel, 2018. "The contributions of human capital, R&D spending and convergence to total factor productivity growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(12), pages 1598-1611, December.
    49. Block, Joern H. & De Vries, Geertjan & Schumann, Jan H. & Sandner, Philipp, 2014. "Trademarks and venture capital valuation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 525-542.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carolina Castaldi & Sandro Mendonca, 2021. "Regions and trademarks. Research opportunities and policy insights from leveraging trademarks in regional innovation studies," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2138, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2021.
    2. El¿bieta Roszko-Wójtowicz & Barbara Dañska-Borsiak & Maria M. Grzelak & Aleksandra Pleœniarska, 2022. "In search of key determinants of innovativeness in the regions of the Visegrad group countries," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 13(4), pages 1015-1045, December.
    3. Crosby, Lawrence A. & Ghanbarpour, Tohid, 2023. "The Drucker intangibles measurement system: An academic perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    4. Yuxuan Ma & Lei Wang & Di Hu & Yaoqing Ge & Junzhu Zuo & Tian Lan, 2023. "Analysis of spatial patterns of technological innovation capability based on patent data in Jiangsu province, China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yougen Cao & Shengce Ren & Mei Du, 2022. "Strategic trademark management: a systematic literature review and prospects for future research," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(5), pages 435-453, September.
    2. Dziallas, Marisa & Blind, Knut, 2019. "Innovation indicators throughout the innovation process: An extensive literature analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 80, pages 3-29.
    3. Stephen Petrie & Mitchell Adams & Ben Mitra‐Kahn & Matthew Johnson & Russell Thomson & Paul Jensen & Alfons Palangkaraya & Elizabeth Webster, 2020. "TM‐Link: An Internationally Linked Trademark Database," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 53(2), pages 254-269, June.
    4. Nasirov, Shukhrat, 2020. "Trademark value indicators: Evidence from the trademark protection lifecycle in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    5. Fisch, Christian & Meoli, Michele & Vismara, Silvio & Block, Jörn H., 2022. "The effect of trademark breadth on IPO valuation and post-IPO performance: an empirical investigation of 1510 European IPOs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(5).
    6. Herz, Benedikt & Mejer, Malwina, 2019. "Effects of the European Union trademark: Lessons for the harmonization of intellectual property systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1841-1854.
    7. Carolina Castaldi & Sandro Mendonca, 2021. "Regions and trademarks. Research opportunities and policy insights from leveraging trademarks in regional innovation studies," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2138, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2021.
    8. Suma Athreye & Claudio Fassio, 2020. "Why do innovators not apply for trademarks? The role of information asymmetries and collaborative innovation," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 134-154, February.
    9. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the duration of membership in the World Trade Organization on Trademark Applications," EconStor Preprints 253266, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. Darius Lambrecht & Joern Block & Matthias Neuenkirch & Holger Steinmetz & Tom Willeke, 2023. "The Interdependence of Intellectual Property and Sales in the Manufacturing Industry: Evidence from the Triangle of Patents, Trademarks, and Sales," Research Papers in Economics 2023-10, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    11. Block, J.H. & Spiegel, F., 2013. "Family firm density and regional innovation output: An exploratory analysis," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 270-280.
    12. Block, Jörn H. & Fisch, Christian O. & Hahn, Alexander & Sandner, Philipp G., 2015. "Why do SMEs file trademarks? Insights from firms in innovative industries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1915-1930.
    13. Shu, Li & Wang, Wei, 2023. "Human capital and trademarks: Evidence from higher education expansion in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    14. Seungil Yum, 2019. "The interaction between knowledge-intensive business services and urban economy," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 63(1), pages 53-83, August.
    15. Crass, Dirk, 2020. "Which firms use trademarks? Firm-level evidence from Germany on the role of distance, product quality and innovation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(7), pages 730-755.
    16. Max Nathan & Anna Rosso, 2017. "Innovative events," Development Working Papers 429, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 08 Apr 2019.
    17. Block, Joern & Spiegel, Frank, 2011. "Family Firms and Regional Innovation Activity: Evidence from the German Mittelstand," MPRA Paper 28604, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Dan, Sujan M. & Spaid, Brian I. & Noble, Charles H., 2018. "Exploring the sources of design innovations: Insights from the computer, communications and audio equipment industries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1495-1504.
    19. Li Fang, 2018. "The Dual Effects of Information Technology Clusters: Learning and Selection," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 32(3), pages 195-209, August.
    20. Gamba, Simona, 2017. "The Effect of Intellectual Property Rights on Domestic Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 15-27.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    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:regstd:v:56:y:2022:i:2:p:190-209. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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/CRES20 .

    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.