The patent management process: an exploratory factor analysis

Purpose - Academics and practitioners have been interested in the organizational and managerial aspects of patent management. However, less attention has been devoted to developing a measurement scale of it. Considering this, the current article proposes a holistic measurement framework for firm level patent management and empirically assesses the underlying factor structure.\ua0 Methodology -This article followed three steps: the first two steps include specifying the domain of constructs and generation of measurement items through a review of existing literature and interviews with experts. In the third step, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to purify the scale.\ua0 Findings - The study yields that patent management has five core dimensions, namely generation, freedom to operate, portfolio management, exploitation & enforcement, and intelligence, and two supporting dimensions, namely strategy and organization of patent management. A framework with patent management constructs and their measurement items was developed for each dimension. Then, using EFA the measurement items were purified, and the underlying factor structure identified.\ua0\ua0 Practical implications - From a theoretical standpoint, researchers can use the framework to analyze the dynamics of patent management in different industries or they can use the scales to test hypotheses about the relationship between dimensions of patent management and firm performance. In addition, managers can use this framework as a management assessment tool to understand the level of sophistication of their patent management and compare themselves with other firms in the industry to evaluate the technological and competitive position. Moreover, the measurement of the current level of patent management can be used as a basis for managers and entrepreneurs to adopt a proactive attitude towards patent management