Social Trust and Inventor Collaboration: Evidence from Co-Patenting Data

Abstract

Inventor collaboration is crucial to achieving innovation success. We propose that social trust can act as an informal institution to actively promote collaborative patenting behavior among inventors. The inventor-year panel data show a positive relationship between social trust and inventor collaborative innovation manifested by the number of co-patents. This positive effect of social trust is more salient in regions with weaker legal environments and in firms with weaker cooperation culture. Further analysis shows that social trust increases inventors’ invention co-patents and thus improves innovation quality. Mechanism tests show that social trust contributes to inventor collaborative innovation by promoting collaboration willingness (more co-inventors and higher cooperation frequency) and efficiency (average number of co-patents per co-inventor). These findings provide inspiration for encouraging inventor collaboration and enhancing innovation quality from the perspective of a social trust environment.

Keywords: Inventor collaboration, Social trust, Collaborative innovation, Legal environment