The effects of compensation plans for employee inventions on R&D productivity: New evidence from Japanese panel data

Abstract

This article reports the first results on how monetary compensation plans for employee inventions affect R&D productivity, based on the notable panel data of Japanese firms. The study finds that the introduction of revenue-based compensation plans that are linked to patent performance lead to an increase in the number of high cited patents, while this never leads to an increase in the number of patent applications. Furthermore, this is strongly effective in smaller firms. These results indicate that the monetary incentives based on patent performance are effective on enhancing the motivation of employee inventors.