지식재산권이 서비스 기업의 기업성과에 미치는 영향: 혁신의 매개효과

Intellectual Property Rights and Firm Performance of Service Firms: The Mediation Effect of Innovations

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are limited by the period of time and condition in the commercialization of products, so that the owner can acquire a monopoly position in the market. This study examines the effects of intellectual property rights on corporate performance through innovative activities of SMEs. In particular, we analyzed whether the effects of firm’s intellectual property rights on service and product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, and marketing innovation, and the effect of each innovation on corporate performance. The study examined 3,750 valid samples surveyed by STEPI (Science and Technology Policy Institute) and all hypotheses except two of the nine hypotheses were accepted. Among four innovation activities of SMEs, three innovation activities, excluding marketing innovation activities, positively influenced firm performance. This study is noteworthy in that it examined the importance of intellectual property rights in SMEs through the result that intellectual property rights directly and/or indirectly impacts the firm performance through various innovation activities. In other words, since SMEs are not enough to realize better profits in a high market competition where the cost reduction and the enhancement of product and service quality have been necessary, our findings suggest that continuous innovation activities and technological development through intellectual property rights and the launch of new products and services can be a driving force for the survival and growth for SMEs.