The nonlinear nature of the relationships between the patent traits and corporate performance

This study utilizes neural network to explore the nonlinear relationships between corporate performance and the patent traits measured from Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of patents (HHI of patents), patent citations, and relative patent position in the most important technological field (RPPMIT) in the US pharmaceutical industry. The results show that HHI of patents and RPPMIT have nonlinearly and monotonically positive influences upon corporate performance, while the influence of patent citations is nonlinearly U-shaped. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies should raise the degrees of the leading position in their most important technological fields and the centralization of their technological capabilities to enhance corporate performance.