Propensity to Patent Brazilian Companies: importance of Economic and Financial Performance

The innovation process is a global phenomenon that affects the economic sectors, especially the companies. Patents help in the process of business competitiveness and serve as a business strategy. The objective of this paper was to investigate how the economic and financial factors affect the decision to deposit patents of publicly traded companies listed on the stock exchange Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3). The data used are a fusion of the information provided by two sources: patent data provided by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and company data of the financial information system of the B3 Stock Exchange, in the period from 2010 to 2017. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the logit econometric model. The results indicate that the companies with greater propensity to patent are characterized as being large, with lower general and short term indebtedness and with lower overall liquidity, together with a higher potential of the asset add value. They are also more likely to be assignor and assignees of technology transfer contracts, in addition to being generally in sectors of high or low technological intensity. The results also show that financial performance indicators have a significant negative impact on the probability of a company filing a patent application.