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This paper examines how employee earnings respond to a one-time cash flow shock in the form of a government R&D grant. In a regression discontinuity design, we find that the grant immediately increases average annual employee-level earnings by 2.9 |$\%$|⁠. This benefit accrues only to incumbent employees and rises with job tenure. The grant also affects firm growth, but the initial wage patterns do not appear to reflect growth or productivity. Instead, the evidence supports implicit equity financing within the firm, where employees initially accept lower wages from financially constrained firms and earn more when the firm has ability to pay. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher country taxes on noxious manufacturing emissions lead to substantial increases in firms' R&D spending. The R&D response is entirely driven by those high-pollution firms most affected by emissions taxes. Pollution taxes increase the marginal value of R&D spending in polluting firms, even when this spending does not lead to new innovation. Pollution taxes have the strongest effect on R&D investment in sectors in which new invention is difficult to appropriate and outside knowledge is easier to acquire, suggesting an important reason dirty firms invest in R&D is to expand their capacity to absorb external knowledge and technical know-how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of observable innovation data for a firm often leads us to exclude or classify these firms as non-innovators. We assess the reliability of six methods for dealing with unreported innovation using several different counterfactuals for firms without reported R&D or patents. These tests reveal that excluding firms without observable innovation or imputing them as zero innovators and including a dummy variable can lead to biased parameter estimates for observed innovation and other explanatory variables. Excluding firms without patents is especially problematic, leading to false-positive results in empirical tests. Our tests suggest using multiple imputation to handle unreported innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of peer firm disclosures in shaping corporate research and development (R&D) investments. Drawing on models of two‐stage R&D races, I hypothesize that a firm could be either deterred or encouraged by peer disclosure of interim R&D success, depending on peer firms' R&D strength in the race. Using granular, project‐level data on clinical trials in the drug development process, I find that a firm's R&D investments in a specific therapeutic area are deterred by disclosures of early‐phase trial initiation from strong rivals in the same area but encouraged by disclosures from weak rivals. Cross‐sectional analyses show that focal firm strength and disclosure relevance moderate the effects of peer firm disclosure. Overall, my evidence suggests that peer firms' R&D disclosures can have both proprietary costs and deterrence benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between product market competition, R&D investment, and the financing choices of R&D-intensive firms on the development of innovative products is only partially understood. We hypothesize that as competition increases, R&D-intensive firms will: i) increase R&D investment relative to existing assets in place; ii) carry more cash; and iii) maintain less net debt. Using the Hatch–Waxman Act as an exogenous shock to competition, we provide causal evidence supporting these hypotheses through a differences-in-differences analysis that exploits differences between the biopharma industry and other industries, and heterogeneity within the biopharma industry. We also explore how these changes affect innovative output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether proprietary costs drive R&D-active firms' choice of private loan structure. We find that R&D-active firms are more likely to choose single-lender over multi-lender private loan financing. This is consistent with the theory that high-ability entrepreneurs protect their proprietary knowledge by communicating it to a single lender while disclosing generic and less sensitive information to the public. This propensity, however, significantly decreases after the enactment of the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA), which accelerated public disclosure of firms' patent details in filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This accelerated public disclosure potentially caused R&D information to spill over to rivals, increasing the proprietary costs of single-lender borrowers. AIPA enactment also increased the spread on R&D-active firms' single-lender loans. These findings contribute to the voluntary disclosure and financing choice literature by linking R&D-active firms' choice of single-lender financing to the proprietary costs of public disclosure. Data Availability: From public sources identified in the study. JEL Classifications: G12; G14; G21; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm life‐cycle stage reflects a firm's current strategic direction toward exploration independent of age or size. We provide evidence that young life‐cycle firms are particularly vulnerable to negative innovation consequences from financial regulation but do not appear to experience any compensating financial reporting quality (FRQ) benefits. Using a generalized difference‐in‐differences design around Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), we document a significant reduction in both research and development (R&D) spending and innovation outputs for young life‐cycle stage firms after regulation. Declines in innovation manifest both from the diversion of scarce resources and from the imposition of an organizational culture mismatched to the pursuit of explorative innovation, resulting in a less generalizable and less diversified patent portfolio. However, we find no evidence that improvements to FRQ materialize to offset these costs. Event study analyses suggest that this negative impact was expected by market participants, and postregulation returns confirm this expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Marketing of Scientific & Research Organizations / Marketing Instytucji Naukowych i Badawczych is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Because security analysts, who serve as brokers between public firms and investors, arrive at their forecasts by incorporating guidance from managers, there is immense pressure on the managers to meet or beat analyst earnings forecasts; moreover, investors reward (penalize) firms for exceeding (missing) analyst forecasts. Reasoning that decisions taken in response to analyst forecasts involve discretionary budgets, the authors study four contingent conditions under which quarterly analyst forecasts drive unanticipated adjustments to advertising and R&D budgets, and the long-term consequences of these budgetary changes. The choice of contingent conditions is related to agency theory-driven concepts of monitoring and bonding costs. Results from a panel data set of 515 firms and a hierarchical Bayesian model that provides firm-level coefficients show that both artificially imposed incentives on managers (monitoring costs) and personal career management concerns (bonding costs) moderate the extent to which managers react to analyst forecasts. Specifically, (1) bonus versus equity proportion of CEO compensation enhances the likelihood of managers reacting to analyst forecasts with unanticipated decreases in advertising and R&D budgets; (2) output experience of CEOs decreases this likelihood; (3) throughput experience of CEOs increases this likelihood; and (4) increasing marketing and R&D intensity decreases this likelihood. The authors also find that the unanticipated adjustments in advertising and R&D budgets adversely affect long-term firm returns and risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effect of an R&D subsidy, one needs to know what the subsidized firms would have done without the incentive. This article studies an Italian program of subsidies for the applied development of innovations, exploiting a discontinuity in program financing due to an unexpected shortage of public money. To identify the effect of the program, the study implements a regression discontinuity design and compares firms that applied before and after the shortage occurred. The results indicate that the program was not effective in stimulating innovative investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore the effects of director liability reduction (DLR) laws on corporate innovation strategies in South Korea. Design/methodology/approach: Regression analysis is used to investigate the effects of the directors' liability reduction coverage on the corporate innovation. The data includes 7,517 firm-year observations spanning from 2011 to 2017. Findings: The authors provide empirical evidence that directors feel protected by the coverage and are able to focus more on innovative projects. Using research and development expenditure and the number of patents registered to measure the firm's innovation, we find that covered firms spend more on R&D and register more patents than non-covered firms. Originality/value: This study extends the literature on corporate innovation. A vast amount of literature empirically tests how best to motivate directors to engage in innovative activities. On the same line, this study is the first to empirically test the effect of DLR shelters on directors' motivations toward innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Studies - Economics, Finance, Politics is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We score 10-K text to obtain annual measures of financial constraints, with separate measures for firms reporting equity and debt financing issues. Equity market constraints are associated with firms funding growth opportunities, have more severe consequences for the firm following large unexpected negative shocks, and are likely driven by informational asymmetries. A significant population of firms reporting equity market constraints also declare that they possess material undisclosed proprietary information. Constraints in the debt markets are distinct and are linked to covenant violations. Our measures outperform others used in the literature in predicting investment cuts following negative shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effects of increased competition stemming from corporate tax rate cuts in foreign competitors' home countries on U.S. domestic manufacturing firms. We develop a measure of U.S. domestic firms' exposure to changes in foreign country tax rates and validate that the measure captures increased competition in the U.S. We find that, on average, U.S. domestic firms lose market power following declines in foreign country tax rates. We also find that, on average, U.S. domestic firms respond by increasing investment in research and development and capital expenditures and by improving total factor productivity. In cross-sectional analyses, we find the impact of foreign tax cuts is concentrated among U.S. domestic firms with low ex ante product differentiation. Taken together, these findings suggest that foreign country tax cuts escalate the competitive threat faced by U.S. domestic firms, and in response, U.S. domestic firms alter their investment strategies and/or become more productive. JEL Classifications: H2; H22; H25. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased size and influence of financial institutions and markets has widened the scope for divergence between value-creation and the value-added measured by national accounts. This paper uses a re-assessment of the concept of value, showing how its creation can be separated from income flows, to examine its potential under- or over-representation in conventional GDP. A revived (and revised) value theory offers new insight into the impact on measured income and growth of structural change (including financial sector growth and offshore outsourcing), and of recent national-accounting reforms including the capitalization of R&D spending. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper outlines the roles of gross domestic spending on research and development (R&D) and gross capital formation in the innovation process and detects their contribution to this improvement. The analysis is conducted for Turkey for the period 1990-2017 using annual time-series data. Our findings suggest a bidirectional causal link between all variables of interest and prove that R&D can be a significant driving force for the Turkish innovation process. Most of the research and development activities in Turkey have been performed by universities. Herein, it is of key importance for the Turkish government to increase public expenditure, especially on education, since human capital plays an important role in building innovation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how research and development (R&D) incoming spillovers affect long-run firm performance following firms' R&D increases. We use a stochastic frontier production method to capture R&D incoming spillover effects. Firms reaping more benefits from R&D investment made by other firms experience more improvement in profitability and more favorable long-run stock performance in the post-R&D-increase period. Firms with higher levels of R&D incoming spillovers recruit more key employees from other firms, suggesting that obtaining know-how through hiring is an important source of incoming spillovers. The evidence also shows that firms experiencing more R&D outgoing spillover effects tend to underinvest in R&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We predict that a firm's greater accounting comparability with its industry peers facilitates its learning from those peer firms' research and development (R&D) investments, allowing that firm to have greater innovative efficiency. We estimate accounting comparability using pro forma capitalized R&D earnings that link lagged R&D expenditures to future profitability employing the Almon (1965) distributed lag model. We find that greater accounting comparability leads to enhanced ability to predict future cash flows generated by R&D investments of peer firms. In the cross-section, we observe that the relation between accounting comparability and innovative efficiency is stronger if peer firms exhibit higher accounting (accrual) quality and are themselves successful innovators. In sum, this study shows that a shared qualitative characteristic of accounting, namely, accounting comparability, is positively associated with innovative efficiency. JEL Classifications: G12; G14; O32. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the interaction between financial constraints and R&D, I study two asset-pricing puzzles: mixed evidence on the financial constraints–return relation and the positive R&D-return relation. Unlike capital investment, R&D is more inflexible. A financially constrained R&D-intensive firm is more likely to suspend/discontinue R&D projects. Therefore, R&D-intensive firms' risk increases with their financial constraints. Conversely, constrained firms' risk increases with their R&D intensity. I find a robust empirical relation between financial constraints and stock returns, primarily among R&D-intensive firms. Moreover, R&D predicts returns only among financially constrained firms. This evidence suggests that financial constraints potentially drive the positive R&D-return relation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on new institutional economics and the innovation literature, this paper examines how subnational institutions can impact corporate research and development (R&D) investment in emerging economies. The study further investigates a key contingency of this institutional effect: a firm's country/ownership identity. Using China's pharmaceutical sector as the empirical context, we find that the quality of subnational institutions, such as the degree of government deregulation and the effectiveness of local contracting institutions, has a significantly positive impact on corporate R&D intensity. Moreover, this institutional effect is more salient in indigenous firms and international joint ventures than in wholly owned foreign subsidiaries. This study serves to shed light on future research on how multifaceted subnational institutions shape innovation activities across different types of business organizations in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes how promotion-based tournament incentives for non-CEO senior executives affect corporate innovation. We measure tournament incentives using the pay gap between a CEO and the next layer of senior executives. We find that tournament incentives are positively related to innovative efficiency, as measured by the number of patents and patent citations generated per million dollars of R&D expense. Our main finding holds in an instrumental-variable analysis and regressions using alternative innovation measures, including patent generality and originality indices and stock market reactions to patent grants. Consistent with prior theories, the positive effect of tournament incentives is found to be particularly pronounced during the period prior to CEO turnovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philanthropic efforts on behalf of basic research span a range of modalities, from assistance for individual investigators to the establishment of research institutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Managerial & Decision Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework to investigate the impact of adopting a strategy of know-how trading on the degree of research and development (R&D) cooperation. We show that the consequences of cooperation in know-how sharing under the conditions of the model are similar to a policy of cooperation in R&D investments in areas with large spillovers. An industry-wide policy of cooperation among competitors with respect to R&D investment and sharing would simply result in maximal joint profits. This cooperative R&D outcome could be generalized to any degree of spillover other than 100%. In this paper, the commitment to a policy of know-how trading by the participants in an industry is explained by the firm’s attempt to induce the equilibrium of a single industry-wide cooperative research joint venture. In a repeated game framework, we show that pre-commitments by non-cooperative firms to disclose their own know-how to the industry can be effective in inducing cooperative R&D investments by the participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanomedicine is one of the emerging technologies and a branch of nanotechnology finding applications in healthcare. Many countries, including India, are pursuing active research programs in nanomedicine to explore novel healthcare solutions to address specific healthcare needs of the society. At present, the government of India, through its various agencies, is funding nanomedicine research in India. It is anticipated that in the next 5 years or so, several nanomedicine-based products shall reach the market. Thereby, it becomes pertinent to evaluate the extent of India’s involvement in activities related to innovation in nanomedicine. However, a comprehensive landscape of nanomedicine innovation in India is currently lacking. This paper attempts to profile the status of research and innovation in the field of nanomedicine in India. The current study evaluates the innovation on the basis of five indicators: financial ecosystem, technology source, research translation, bibliographic data (patents and publications), and regulation. Public-private partnerships and international collaborations are also discussed in the paper. The landscape elucidates current status of nanomedicine in India and may be relevant for policy-related matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies find that firms cut research and development (R&D) expense in response to earnings considerations. We extend this stream of research by documenting that firms narrowly achieving an earnings threshold also report unusually high capital expenditures. In addition, these firms’ total investments (R&D expense plus capital expenditures) do not vary in response to earnings thresholds, which suggests that, on average, reductions in R&D expense are offset by concurrent increases in capital expenditures. Lastly, our research design allows us to infer that the increased capital expenditures are largely R&D investments that are capitalized instead of non-R&D capital expenditures, suggesting that overall investments in R&D are relatively unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the causal relationship between research and development (R&D) expenditure and innovation in Greece, during the period 1981–2009. It uses time series analysis, the theoretical background of the endogenous knowledge-based growth theories and the annual number of patent applications to the European Patent Organization as proxy of innovation activity. The Johansen method is applied to examine the possibility of co-integration. The results confirm the presence of a long-run relationship between R&D expenditure and innovation. The total and private R&D expenditure appear to have a positive effect on total and business innovation. In addition, the public R&D expenditure has a positive influence on business and total innovation, which indicates the existence of significant externalities of public sector research. The long-run elasticity of innovation with respect to R&D expenditure is estimated to be, on average, 1.9. Implications for public policies and related practices are formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study to what extent inconsistent feedback signals about performance affect firm adaptive behavior in terms of changes made to research-and-development (R&D) investments. We argue that inconsistency in performance feedback—based on discrepancies between two distinct performance signals—affects the degree to which such investments will be changed. Our aim is to show that accounting for inconsistent performance feedback is necessary as predictions for the direction of change in R&D investments based on the individual performance feedback signals are contradictory. Furthermore, we contribute by proposing a holistic consideration mechanism as an alternative to the selective attention mechanism previously applied to inconsistent performance feedback. Our findings show that the impact of inconsistency depends on the exact configuration of the underlying performance feedback signal discrepancies. While consistently negative performance feedback signals would amplify their impact in stimulating increased R&D investments, inconsistent performance feedback signals created more nuanced effects. Having lower performance compared to an industry-based peer group—despite doing well compared to the previous year—made firms decrease their R&D investments. For the opposite case of inconsistent performance feedback, we did not find an effect on change in R&D investments. These findings support to a degree our contention that explaining the effects of inconsistent performance feedback requires a holistic consideration theoretical mechanism instead of one involving selective attention. In sum, these findings suggest future research should take into account the differences between distinct instances of inconsistent performance feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using administrative data from firms in Australia that conduct research and development (R&D), we examine how R&D activity of other firms and public institutions affect a firm's own R&D expenditure. We distinguish between the impact of peers, suppliers and clients. We examine whether geographical proximity and industrial clustering affect R&D spillovers. Overall, we detect positive effects on R&D expenditure from spillovers from peers and clients to firms that are nearby; within 25 or 50 km. R&D expenditure by academia, unlike by government bodies, has a positive influence on a firm's own R&D expenditure within state boundaries. We fail to find any significant role for industrial clusters in augmenting spillover effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge has become the main source of value creation in many businesses. In the paper we investigate applied approaches for estimating the value of intangible assets published in recent years. The objective of our paper is to compare three main approaches, which were used as intangible intensity indicators in last five years. We apply them on a sample of data of European companies from database Amadeus. The analysis covers ROTA measure as well as investment in intangible assets and expenses into research and development as the key drivers of the knowledge creation in a company. We show that for European firms with increasing ROTA rank measure, the value of R&D expenses and disclosed intangible assets increase as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the factors influencing the Chinese manufacturing industry's innovation and industrial performance utilizing a panel data approach on a sample of Chinese manufacturing enterprises over the period of 2008-2013. The industries were grouped according to related sectors into five groups, a general group was also created which included the whole data sample. The study found that research and development (R&D) expenditure positively influenced the growth of product innovation and industrial performance, but not necessarily knowledge innovation and export performance. Also, expenditure on new product development had a positive impact on both innovation and industrial performance. The growth of patent application was discovered to be influenced by an R&D project and foreign patent license. Finally, the number of enterprises and firm size (i.e. number of employees) contributed positively to the industrial output performance. The findings suggest that industrial R&D and new product development influences the success of product innovation and sales performance. The study recommends that the government should set up policies that will stimulate industrial R&D, while supporting technology transfers from foreign partners. Most importantly, government policies on the development of the industry should be addressed on a sectorial level and not a 'one-size-fit-all' type of policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global research and development (R&D) spending has increased in recent years as the need for new technologies has grown and structural changes in the market have become evident. R&D and its transfer into the commercial sector have an important relationship. This paper analyzes the relationship between industrial R&D expenditure and how it affects technology transfer in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. The research is based on the analysis of secondary data from published annual reports followed by a quantitative analysis of primary data using survey questionnaires. The research finds that the bulk of R&D expenditure was from the top ten organizations and the top five industries for each country. The findings also reveal that an organization's readiness in terms of technology and people capabilities is still weak in Malaysia and Singapore. The findings also indicate that there is a relationship between industrial R&D expenditure and the propensity of technology transfer in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether discretion in reporting pension expenses mitigates research and development (R&D) manipulation. Using a sample of Japanese manufacturing firms during the fiscal years 2001-2011 where both pension costs and R&D expenditures have large impacts on the bottom-line earnings, I find that higher discount rates are associated with higher R&D investment among firms in which pension expenses could have large impacts on reported earnings. I also find that this relationship is found only among firms in high-tech industries. These results suggest that pension accrual management substitutes costly R&D manipulation that may hurt future competitive edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the economic value of both embodied technological change and Research and Development (R&D) investment as proxies for the inputs of innovative activities conducted by Vietnamese firms. Our main focus is on the profitability of young innovative companies (YICs), private innovative companies (PICs), and small and young companies (SYCs). In particular, we test whether YICs could prove successful in fostering economic development through their technological change activities. Results show that (a) although YICs are more R&D intensive and innovative than PICs and SYCs, in general they do not produce equivalent performance; however those specific YICs focusing on technological change potentially outperform their counterparts, and (b) PICs are more capable than the other types of firms in translating their innovative effort to higher profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's internationally interdependent economy, under the fasttracking speed of technological change, measuring the research and development (R&D) productivity performance has been rekindled with the recent rise of spending by the Central Public Sector Enterprises in India, including Maharatna and Navaratna enterprises (with the Maharatna and the Navaratna status companies receive greater functional freedom based on few parameters set by the Department of Public Enterprises) on R&D in their conduct of democracy-imbued and innovation-led sustainable and smart growth. With the help of eight decision variables in a multi-objective best-practice framework, this study measured the ultimate effectiveness ratings of the thirty enterprises for the past three years. The findings markedly show that though the enterprises are becoming highly technology-intensive, their efficiency gain and exposure in productivity strength are not encouraging, except the Maharatna and the Navaratna enterprises, and many of them are geared on the same trajectory to enhance corporate strength by aggressive R&D spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether subsidies are allocated to financially constrained firms and if they effectively alleviate these constraints. We claim that in addition to the usual "public good" arguments behind the allocation of subsidies, the extent to which firms are able to obtain external funding should not be overlooked. Overall, our results question both the allocation and the effectiveness of subsidies in alleviating financial constraints of firms willing to innovate. Additionally, the decision criteria for allocating public funds seem to be similar from those used by the private investors. These results have important implications on the design of future innovation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate R&D activities are inherently risky but also difficult to monitor. Against this background, we examine the impact of ownership concentration and legal shareholder rights protection on corporate R&D investments in emerging markets. Based on a comprehensive sample of publicly listed firms from 24 countries, we find that R&D intensity is lower in firms with (strategic) block ownership, and this effect is more pronounced in countries with stronger shareholder rights protection. This suggests that, similar to the situation in developed economies, dispersed ownership, which allows shareholders to diversify their investment risks, is beneficial for corporate R&D and that this effect is intensified by more developed institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is bank financing compatible with innovation? We show that an exogenous enhancement in the value of borrowers' patents, either through greater patent protection or creditor rights over collateral, results in cheaper loans. Using regression discontinuity design, we show that although R&D investment sharply drops following a financial covenant violation, the reduction is concentrated in firms with less productive R&D. Consequently, R&D reduction does not impair innovative output. Our results suggest that the property rights that patents confer to intellectual property and to lenders' judicious exercise of control rights allow bank loans to be a viable means of financing for innovative firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]