発明者の逸脱行動と発明の新規性

─―指標構築を通じた探索的分析─―

抄録

 This paper aims to investigate the effect of deviant inventors on producing novel invention. So far, many studies have suggested the existence and merits of research and development activities without formal organizational support. However, with a few exceptions, the antecedent factors and effects of deviant behavior have not been sufficiently distinguished.

 Using data of patents applied by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) we investigated the relationship between inventors “degree of deviation” and “novelty of invention”. As a result, we showed the inverted U-shape relation between inventors “degree of deviation” and “novelty of invention”. That is, outputs of inventors with moderate deviation are likely to be more novel than those of inventors with low/high deviations. On the other hand, inventors with a high degree of deviation are prone to produce rather incremental invention. This result can be interpreted as the problem of resource availability, which means that deviant inventors cannot enjoy the advantage which is able to gain in official projects.

 This finding contributes to the research stream on inventor’s deviance from two perspectives. The first is that this research indicates the importance of focusing on “the degree of deviation”. As suggested by previous studies, we should grasp various types of deviance behavior. Second is that this study may update our knowledge about the impact of inventor’s deviance. Although previous studies expect deviant inventors to be the source of technological breakthroughs, this study suggests the limitation on such arguments.