Inventive Activity Research Articles

Crowdsourcing of Inventive Activities, AI, and the NIH Syndrome

This study examines how crowdsourcing can support innovation in companies. It focuses on the Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome—a reluctance to adopt external ideas—that varies depending on which organizational boundaries are considered, such as power, competence, and culture. By analyzing how these boundaries influence resistance to crowdsourced solutions, this study finds that although crowdsourcing brings valuable diversity and insights, many organizations struggle to leverage these effectively. Moreover, with the rise of generative AI, many organizations are increasingly focused on internal data and AI-driven innovation, which further intensifies NIH syndrome by deprioritizing external insights. We discuss why and how companies that have managed NIH syndrome effectively may be better positioned to overcome resistance to AI.

Cross-National Comparison of Technology Innovation Capabilities in Automation and Robotics

In today’s dynamic and global economic environment, technological innovations are a key determinant of international competitiveness. In the field of automation and robotics, the development of modern technologies is of particular significance, influencing not only industrial progress but also social aspects. Automation and robotics play a crucial role in the concept of modern industry, contributing to the creation of more sustainable, flexible, and human-centric production systems. The article aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of the patent activity in automation and robotics in Europe. Patent documentation serves as a source of knowledge about the directions of research, inventive activities, and consequently, the innovative and competitive potential of the economy. The number of patents over time reflects the dynamics of a country’s technological development. The article discusses the use of patent databases to evaluate a country’s innovation in automation and robotics. The conducted analysis of data on European countries enabled the identification of trends based on the International Patent Classification and specialisation from a geographical perspective using revealed comparative technological advantage. The European countries were classified using cluster analysis, demonstrating the diversity, and identifying leaders in each group.

Organization of Inventive Activity of Schoolchildren in Network Interaction

The relevance is related to the need to develop engineering innovative thinking of schoolchildren based on inventive, technical activities. The hypothesis of the study is as follows: the organization of inventive activity of schoolchildren is advisable, taking into account the principles of thinking development and on the basis of a network association of schoolchildren for an event related to invention. The novelty lies in the justification of the need for network interaction in the organization of schoolchildren’s inventive activities; in highlighting the possibilities of network interaction to take into account the principles of thinking development. The principle of subjectivity is associated with the need to develop conscious human self-regulation; the principle of clarity is to highlight the essential aspects of the subject of study for the correct and rapid formation of the required concept; the principle of normality determines the need for the formation of norms, patterns, algorithms of mental activity; the principle of consistency is aimed at forming connections between concepts, eventually forming cognitive-representative structures of thinking; the principle of creativity is aimed at developing imagination, the main condition for its implementation is the creation of a creative environment; the principle of complementarity is associated with the use of dichotomous models in the educational process, dialectically mutually exclusive and complementary to each other for a holistic understanding of the studied object. Research methods are analysis of scientific and methodological literature, organization of networking in education and the experience of organizing schoolchildren’s inventive activities, observation, interview with participants of various events related to children’s invention, analysis of the practice of such events. The practical results of the work are determined by the organization of mass events for schoolchildren, which require their active communication within the framework of the interaction of various subjects of the educational process, possible in a network format: Engineering Olympiad, Tournament of Young Inventors, Ural-Innova Young Inventors competition. As a result, the following research results have been obtained: it is most advisable to create the organization of schoolchildren’s inventive activities in the network interaction with centers at universities. The development of thinking should be considered as the goal of this activity; the methodological basis of this activity are the principles of thinking development. Keywords: networking, principles of thinking development, inventive activity, technical creativity, additional education

Top Managers’ Involvement in Inventive Activities and Firms’ Performance

Top Managers’ Involvement in Inventive Activities and Firms’ Performance

A Consistent, Exhaustive Taxonomy of Inventive Activities

A classification of scientific and technological activities is put forth here, based on taxonomy of Inventive Activities' features. In the end, a description of Research & Innovation ensues that is consistent and more complete than current ones. Then, the gauging of R & I activities may result more meaningful and precise.

ERC science and invention: Does ERC break free from the EU Paradox?

We explore the relationship between government-supported science and its translation into inventive activities, focusing on the European Research Council (ERC), the principal funding mechanism for top-quality research in Europe. We show that, compared to similar European research, ERC science accrues a greater number of patent citations. Moreover, patents that draw upon ERC research are of superior quality, measured by forward citations. Compared to similar European research, inventive activities arising from ERC science are more likely to be housed within universities and public research organizations. In absolute terms, however, US organizations, especially US companies, still lead in deriving the greatest benefits from ERC science. The significant disparity in corporate sector patenting linked to ERC science in the US and EU is fueled by inventions undertaken by startups, highlighting the crucial role of a dynamic startup landscape in driving inventions at the frontier of science. Overall, our findings suggest that ERC science continues to face challenges associated with the so-called European Paradox.

The Role of Secure Property Rights in Driving Economic Growth: A Review of Recent Evidence

This paper aims to briefly explain the factors contributing to economic growth, particularly emerging and developing economies, emphasizing the impacts of secure property rights. Tangible and intangible assets such as land and minerals, patents and copyrights offer the investors legal recognition that enhances investment, inventive activities and efficient market exchange. The review demonstrates how property rights reforms have positively impacted agricultural yields, credit facilities, and FDI in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin American countries. The paper also focuses on the impact of intellectual property rights on technological advancement, especially in knowledge-based societies. While the previous shows that there are gains in reforms in property rights, it has to be stated that there are still hurdles in the implementation of property rights reforms for the benefit of the more significant population due to the following: ? Finally, the paper reiterates the importance of efficient and precise laws and policies that will enhance the efficiency of the property rights to enhance the economic returns.

Russia’s inventive activity in new technological trends

The study is devoted to analyzing peculiarities of inventive activity development in Russia in the conditions of sanctions restrictions and a new technological mode formation. The place of Russia in the world patent market has been determined, inventive activity regional potential analyzed. In terms of the absolute number of patent applications Russia is among the top ten world leaders, but its share in the world patent market is insignificant. Sanctions restrictions led to the reduction of applications for inventions by foreign applicants and weakening of the domestic intellectual property market dependence on foreign intellectual capital. A significant regional differentiation of inventive activity has been noted, and five leading regions identified. It is revealed that inventive and innovation activity are connected by a positive statistically significant relationship. The regions typologization by the inventive and innovation activity level has been obtained, which will make it possible to compare the inventive and innovation potential of regions and identify those in which they coincide or, conversely, do not correspond to each other. Consideration of the relationship among the indicators can be used to make decisions in the field of intellectual property, which can contribute to the intellectual security of Russia and serve as a basis for technological independence.

Sources of heterogeneous treatment effects of incorporating public innovation intermediaries for SMEs: evidence from Japan’s Kohsetsushi

ABSTRACT A series of public administration reforms were implemented in Japan to cope with the secular stagnation since the 1990s, some of which took the form of the incorporation of public organisations. Drawing on the incorporation of Kohsetsushi, public innovation intermediaries for SMEs, this study evaluates its average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) by applying the difference-in-differences (DID) model to panel data (2000–2021). Local governments decided whether and when to incorporate Kohsetsushi, which suggests staggered treatments and heterogeneous treatment effects. Applying the conventional two-way fixed-effects DID model to panel data with staggered treatments may yield biased ATTs due to contaminated comparisons where early-treated units are used as a control group. This study adopted the DID model to correct the bias, which clarified the correlation between the treatment timings and treatment effects on technology diffusion. Kohsetsushi incorporated late enhanced research and inventive activities with geographically broad spillover while reducing technical consultation with localised spillover. Sources of heterogeneity are discussed from the perspectives of agglomeration externalities, industrial knowledge bases, and learning capacity.

Decentering the Patent: Opportunities to Reframe American Innovation Rhetorics

ABSTRACT Rhetoricians have long critiqued gendered (Gurak; Koerber) and racial (Banks; Haas) biases in rhetorics of science and technology. However, we have yet to fully consider how the patent, as a genre, perpetuates these biases both in the constraints it places on contemporary definitions of invention and innovation and in how it distorts historical narratives about who invented in the past. Delineating the patent’s limitations as an index of inventive activity, this article advocates for more expansive understandings of invention. It argues that American patents have, since the nineteenth century, affirmed a dominant “rhetoric of innovation” that has since functioned as much as a marker of privilege as it has an index of inventiveness. Using the example of early twentieth-century Black hair culture, this article suggests other ways of recovering historical inventiveness among groups of Americans possessing their own, alternative “rhetorics of innovation” that reflect their culturally situated strategies for empowerment.

Korrespondenzen mit Konrad Adenauer – ein Erfinder und seine Patentanwälte

Abstract Among German private inventors, former Federal Chancellor Dr. Konrad Adenauer is a peculiar case. Despite his (few) successful patents and his fame as a politician, hardly any aspects of his inventive activity have been studied scientifically so far. His correspondence with several patent attorneys lends itself to the following question: What functions could patent attorneys fulfil for private inventors in the first half of the 20th century? Using Adenauer as an example for this, it will be examined which roles his patent attorneys played for him and what added value resulted for Adenauer.

Factors of productive capacity of the economy of Ukrainian regions in the innovation dimension

In modern economic management, innovations are crucial in ensuring productive development and economic progress. However, Ukraine has shown a noticeable lag in many aspects of innovation activity compared to developed countries worldwide. This includes technological equipment for production, efficiency of research and development, innovative and inventive activity, cooperation in the field of innovations, scientific capacity of GDP, and financing of research and development works. This article aims to explore the peculiarities and regularities of the relationship between innovative activity and the productive capacity of the economy of Ukraine's regions. The article primarily emphasizes that innovations are a crucial factor in enhancing productivity and economic growth in the current economic conditions. The features and regularities of the relationship between innovative activity and the productive capacity of the economy of Ukraine's regions have been investigated. Scatter diagrams showing the relationship between multifactor productivity and the scientific intensity of the economy of Ukraine's regions, the distribution of patents for inventions and utility models among regions, the share of innovation-active enterprises engaged in scientific cooperation on R&D, and expenses on R&D per employed person have been presented. To determine the change in the impact of these indicators on multifactor productivity, the analysis was conducted for the years 2013 and 2021. The results of the analysis indicate that not all innovative processes directly or significantly impact the growth of multifactor productivity in the regions of Ukraine, and some considered factors, on the contrary, have a reverse impact on its formation as they lead to its decrease. Attention is drawn to the existence of the so-called innovation paradox and productivity. Several cause-and-effect mechanisms leading to the innovation paradox have been analyzed. It has been established that despite current challenges, the post-war revival of the Ukrainian economy depends on implementing an effective strategy to increase innovation potential for productivity growth, requiring increased state support for innovative projects and encouraging the industry to modernize production with adequate funding. Keywords: innovative processes, technological developments, productive capacity, financial resources, patent activity, innovation paradox.

Regional eco-innovation trajectories

ABSTRACT Given that eco-innovations and the associated renewal of regional economic structures are pivotal in addressing environmental challenges, regional research is increasingly focusing on their spatio-temporal dynamics. While green technological and industrial path developments in specific regions have received considerable attention, little effort has been made to derive general patterns of environmental inventive activities across regions. Drawing on unique data capturing both green incumbent and green start-up activities in the 401 German NUTS-3 regions over the period 1997–2018, this paper sheds light on how eco-innovation activities unfold in different regional contexts. For this purpose, we introduce sequence analysis methods into the research toolkit of research on regional development. These novel methods allow us to understand to what extent regions engage in eco-innovation activities, how these activities change over time and to what extent similar or unique eco-innovation trajectories (co)evolve. Based on this empirical approach, we distinguish different types of regional eco-innovation trajectories and find a strong persistence and path dependency in green regional development.

РЕЗУЛЬТАТИВНОСТЬ НАУЧНЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ ПО ОТРАСЛЕВЫМ ПРИОРИТЕТАМ

The article presents the results of the institution’s research work obtained in 2023. Research is focused on solving problems: accelerated creation of new varieties of horticultural crops based on the mobilization of bioresource collections using molecular genetic methods and digital technologies; ensuring environmental and economic sustainability and optimal productivity of perennial agrocenoses, as well as the quality and safety of preserved plant agricultural raw materials based on biologization and digitalization of technological processes. An analysis of the effectiveness of scientific and technical activities is given according to the criteria of research, publishing, publiсation, inventive activity, innovative, educational and financial and economic activities of a scientific institution. As a result of R&D, 115 completed developments of fundamental importance have received, forming the methodological and methodical basis for the creation of scientific and technical products of a priority applied level. Fundamentally new developments in applied research in the fields of knowledge relevant to the scientific institution were 81 developments that provide improvement in the quantitative and qualitative indicators of biocenotic and production processes in fruit and vineyards, technological processes during storage and processing of agricultural products. The gene pool is preserved – 7,253 samples of fruit, berry, nut crops and grapes, replenished with 127 varieties; clones were selected and 7 donors were identified and 53 sources for creating new varieties that combine high potential productivity, winter hardiness, drought resistance, sustainability to the most harmful diseases and pests. The State Register of Breeding Achievements approved for use in 2023 in the North Caucasus (6) region includes 3 varieties of apple trees, one grape variety, one clonal rootstock of small stone fruit crops, a rose variety bred by the scientific institution. Output products are registered in the USAIS electronic accounting database in the form of intellectual property for 99 completed developments. Regulatory documentation has been developed in the form of organizational standards, technological instructions and technical conditions for 37 completed developments.

Innovation Practices and Organizational Learning

The organization's ability to innovate is a prerequisite for the successful use of inventive activity of resources and new technologies. Indeed, the introduction of new technologies presents complex opportunities and challenges for organizations, leading to changes in management practices and the emergence of new organizational forms. Thus, innovation is an important source of growth and a determinant of competitive advantage for many organizations. Indeed, achieving innovation requires coordinated efforts of many actors and the integration of activities across specialized functions, domains and contexts of knowledge application. Our goal is to provide a perspective on organizational innovation and to identify the importance of organizational cognition and learning to improve innovation.

The technological imprinting of educational experiences on student startups

The literature suggests that the startups of de novo entrepreneurs are disadvantaged, but many of the world's leading firms have been founded by students and recent graduates. We hypothesize that academic and industry-based educational experiences shape the innovative activity of student startups and use patent data to measure technological proximity between the patent portfolios of influencers and startups. We find that indirect exposure to the research and development activities of the students' university departments and work term employers results in technological imprinting. Influencer and entrepreneur capabilities affect the magnitude of the imprinting effect: student ventures are technologically more proximate to highly ranked university departments and to more innovative work term employers, and the students' software skills impact their ability to invent in proximity to their work term employer. We also find that multiple layers of imprints are complements, not substitutes. Exposure to inventive activities, even when indirect and brief, results in multiple capabilities-moderated layers of imprints.

Inventive activity: features of the first stages

The Paper presents theoretical and empirical findings about inventive activity. Major invention process models are considered, their comparative analysis is carried out, and their advantages and limitations are revealed. The least studied first stages of inventive activity were theoretically identified and became the main objective of this study. To specify the content of the first stages of the inventive process, an empirical study was carried out through the methods of peer review, written and oral surveys, content analysis and modelling. The study involved 15 experts, namely inventors with a significant number of patents. Based on the survey of experts and the analysis of other authors’ investigations, the content of the first stages of inventive activity was specified and conclusions were drawn about their variability as well as the possibilities to apply them in developing inventive abilities and enhancing technical innovation processes.

Development of Science in Conjunction with Economic Growth: Global Trends and Patterns

The formation of artificial communities within the framework of various types of mathematical and computer modeling, primarily agent-based, requires confident knowledge about the degree and nature of the interaction of the simulated agents, components and elements of the system being studied. The work reveals patterns of influence of scientific and innovation indicators on the level of the economy in countries around the world. Based on measuring the level of correlations between the publication activity of the countries of the world, the per capita level of R&D expenditures, patent activity and the number of researchers with the level of their economy relative to the population, it is shown that the indicators of the conjugation of the scientific and innovation sphere of countries and their level are quite high, in general intensified from 2010 to 2022. Since 2010, the ratio of the levels of mutual dependence of indicators of scientific and inventive activity and the relative values of national economies has changed; among other indicators, the highest level of correlation in 2022 is characterized by publication activity. The level of interconnection has largely increased due to the sharp intensification of the level of scientific development of rich oil and gas producing countries. Considering Russia’s place in global trends in scientific development, the author concludes that it is advisable to increase funding for scientific research in Russia while maintaining the course of supporting the productivity of fundamental science.

Service to stimulate the student’s inventive activity at the university

The relevance of the topic of the article is due to the need to intensify innovation at domestic industrial enterprises to ensure accelerated technological sovereignty. The article presents the justification for the need to develop a university service to automate the process of generating a patent application, as an important component of inventive activity. The analysis of existing foreign software products for the formation and verification of applications showed that they cannot be used in domestic universities to obtain Russian patents. A step-by-step algorithm for the process of filing an application for a patent is formulated and an assessment is made of the possibilities of its automation using the service. For the possibility of developing a service to automate the process of generating applications, a description of its main functions is given (the presence of a line of application element templates; filling out a patent application form; assistance in compiling a description of an invention or utility model; support for multi-user work; integration with other systems; tracking the status of an application for grant of a patent, etc.). In addition, the qualification requirements for the service development team are structured in the form of the necessary knowledge, skills and practical experience. The main advantages of using the service for university students and other novice inventors are determined.

АНАЛИЗ ДИНАМИКИ ИЗОБРЕТАТЕЛЬСКОЙ АКТИВНОСТИ В РФ В ЧАСТИ РАЗВИТИЯ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ ИНФОРМАЦИОННОГО МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЯ

The article evaluates the dynamics of inventive activity in the Russian Federation, as well as analyzes the development of information modeling technologies in construction as one of the types of intangible assets. Their dependence on modern conditions affecting positive and negative dynamics is considered. At the same time, the coefficient of inventive activity, commercialization of intellectual property objects, their evaluation, management efficiency, as well as accounting of intangible assets are responsible for the successful development of the subject of intellectual property. The main tool regulating their interaction and work is the work of the state in terms of timely informing about all changes in legislation