Innovation quality in the automobile industry: measurement indicators and performance implications Online publication date: Sat, 23-Dec-2006
by Chun-Yao Tseng, Lei-Yu Wu
International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM), Vol. 37, No. 1/2, 2007
Abstract: This study investigates two major issues related to innovation quality in automobile companies. First, this study assesses a number of different indicators of innovation quality in the automobile industry. Second, this study examines the relationship between innovation quality and firm performance. Five indicators are developed (namely, patent count, relative citation ratio, citation-weighted patents, science linkage, scope of innovations) for measuring innovation quality using patent counts and patent citations from the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Time-series cross-section patent data from 17 global automobile firms between 1983 and 2002 were used for random effect model. The empirical results show obvious differences among 17 automobile firms in five indicators of innovation quality, and three indicators measuring firm innovation quality (that is patent count, citation-weighted patents and scope of innovations) positively and significantly affect firm profits.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook