기술획득과 중소기업 성장

Abstract

As open innovation and rapid technology acquisition in the wake of the fourth industrial revolution of connectivity and convergence play an essential role in creating a company's competitiveness, SMEs are seeking to acquire external technology through a variety of routes. As a result, research on the effect of technology acquisition type on the company's performance has been consistently conducted by using such information as joint patent ownership, patent rights transfer, and license grants. Nevertheless, it is true that research until now has been centered on global conglomerates in high-tech manufacturing industries such as ICT, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology, and that the number of research on domestic SMEs has not been too many.

Hence, this study used patent information from the Korean Institute of Patent Information to identify SMEs that hold solely applied/registered patents, hold jointly applied/registered patents, or obtained patents by acquisition or licensing in 2017. Then we categorized them into In-house R&D (solely applied/registered), Joint R&D (jointly applied/registered), and Purchased R&D (acquired or licensed). In addition, with the help of the Korea Enterprise Data DB, after collecting financial information(sales amount) about the SMEs following their technology acquisition, we empirically analyzed the effect of technology acquisition type on the SME's subsequent performance.

Studies have shown that both In-house R&D patents and Purchased R&D patents had a positive effect on sales one and two years after application or acquisition. However, during the same period, joint R&D patents did not demonstrate a statistically significant effect on sales. In addition, among purchased R&D patents, while patents acquired from outside had a positive effect on sales one and two years after the acquisition, patent licensing had no statistically significant effect on sales in the same period. On the other hand, the relative magnitude of the effect on sales was greater for patents acquired from other patent holders than for In-house patents.

These findings suggest that in the case of SMEs, more aggressive external technology acquisition activity such as patent acquisition can have a more direct impact on business growth. In addition, the research suggests that the government should make efforts to strengthen taxation and financial support policies for Purchased R&D of SMEs that acquire external patent rights.