MS, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science

This paper is a study of trends in patenting of Artificial Intelligence technologies in the US using natural language techniques. Patents contain significant knowledge of the current scenario of commercial technologies. Natural language techniques can be used to extract useful information from patents which can reduce human effort to analyze them. Around 104,000 patents related to artificial intelligence technologies filed in the US were collected from the WIPO database from 2000 to 2018. Topic modeling was performed on the extracted text data. Patent applications were then categorized into five categories: Companies, Individuals, Research Institutes, Government and Universities and the trends of applicants in the field of Artificial Intelligence for each of the categories were compared.

Committee: Anca Ralescu Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kenneth Berman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dan Ralescu Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2019, Humanities

Steering women toward educational paths and careers in fields of invention would seem, in theory, to be the obvious solution to closing the gap between the number of men and women filing for and being granted invention patents. Billions of dollars have been invested at the federal, state, and local levels to spur interest and competency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning, but gender disparity in innovation workplaces persists. Studies indicate that, in addition to the educational barriers that can be and have been addressed legislatively, social and cultural influences affect outcomes for career women, as well as young women considering STEM degree programs. Evidence suggests that as more male students are drawn to STEM fields as a result of these same educational initiatives, the inventive patent ownership gender gap will widen. By considering the historical treatment of women with regard to intellect, employment, and property ownership, an enormity of scope emerges that, in turn, creates questions about the efficacy of current suggested strategies to narrow the gap.

Committee: Kelli D. Zaytoun Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Zdravka K. Todorova Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nancy G. Garner Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Economic History; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Business Administration

Through this dissertation, I contribute to our understanding of asset characteristics and collateral pledgeability in the context of intangible assets. Finance theories and existing empirical evidence suggest that tangible assets with general uses are more suitable as collateral than tangible assets with specific uses, due to low liquidation costs. Firms with general purpose assets are able to have higher debt capacity, longer loan maturity, and lower loan costs. Given that firms' assets are composed of higher proportions of intangibles now than in the past, the practice of securing intangible assets as collateral is relatively common. Nevertheless, little empirical evidence has been provided to further our understanding of this development. The goal of this dissertation is to fill that gap. In the first essay, I examine the relationship between patent non-specificity and patent pledgeability. Using a unique dataset from the USPTO, I track patent ownership changes for public U.S. firms between 1990 and 2012. I also provide a method for measuring patent non-specificity at the portfolio level. I find that patents with general uses are more likely to be pledged as collateral in loan contracts. Specifically, for technology firms that experienced unexpected declines in their patent portfolio values after the 2001 recession, patent non-specificity was the key determinant of patent pledgeability. Moreover, patent non-specificity is an important measure of a firm's risk, as well as its patent collateral quality. Patent non-specificity is positively associated with a firm's leverage, controlling for other relevant factors. Similarly, it is positively associated with syndicated loan maturity but negatively correlated with loan pricing, and these correlations are stronger for firms with low asset tangibility. In the second essay, I examine the relationship between intellectual asset characteristics and corporate leverage. I track intellectual asset holdings (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michael Weisbach (Committee Chair); Bernadette Minton (Committee Co-Chair); Zahi Ben-David (Advisor); Isil Erel (Advisor) Subjects: Finance

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Business: Business Administration

The dissertation consists of two essays. Essay I examines the return predictability by firm level R&D and innovation measures and shows that technology spillover helps to explain the positive innovation-return relation. Essay II propose a novel measure of conditional value premium based on firm's stock split announcement. This measure is shown to have a strong predicting power over value premium both in sample and out of sample. Essay I: I show that technology spillovers are important information phenomena that benefit both other innovators (as emphasized in the Industrial Organization literature) and stock market investors. I find that the premium associated with R&D and patenting activities is largely restricted to firms located in more isolated technology spaces with fewer spillovers. Moreover, there is a strong lead-lag effect among firms engaging in innovative activities: the stock prices of firms in more isolated technology spaces react more slowly to new information than do the stock prices of firms in more competitive technology spaces. Finally, announcement-day returns to patent grants are greater for more technologically important patents (measured by forward citations), but only for firms in more crowded technology spaces. My results indicate that investors are able to value innovative investments by exploiting the information flows associated with greater technology spillovers. Essay II: I propose a novel conditional value premium measure based on the present-value relation that the stock price impact of a firm's public announcement reveals the firm's expected discount rates. Specifically, because most splitting stocks are growth stocks on which, by construction, the value premium has strong influence, the average splitting stock announcement-day returns track closely conditional value premium. I find very similar results using announcements of divested asset acquisitions in which acquirers are usually growth firms. Consistent with risk- (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michael Ferguson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Hui Guo Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yan Yu Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Finance

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Engineering : Materials Science

This dissertation presents an analysis of innovation in engineering materials and energy sources. More than fifty engineering materials and fourteen energy sources were selected for an evaluation of the relationship between the yearly production activity and yearly patent counts, which may be considered as a measure of innovation, for each. Through the employment of correlation theory, best-fit and origin shift analyses, it has been determined here that engineering materials and energy sources display similar life cycle and innovative activity behaviors. Correlation theory revealed a relationship between the yearly production and yearly patent counts indicating the extent that production and innovation affect each other. Best-fit analysis determined that four-stage life cycles exist for both engineering materials (metals and non-metals) and energy sources. Correlation and best-fit indicators of an estimated Stage III are confirmed by the presence of an origin shift of the patent data when compared to the production data which indicates that patents, or innovation, are driving, or being driven by, production. This driving force could represent the constructive or destructive side of the innovative process, with such sides being delineated by a possible universal constant above which there is destructive innovative behavior and below which exists constructive innovation. The driving force may also illustrate the manner in which an engineering material or energy source transitions into an innovatively less active state, enter Stage IV and possibly become a commodity. A possible Stage V, indicating “Final Death”, is introduced in which production is on a steep decline with no signs of recovery. Additionally, innovatively active energy sources are often found to utilize or be supported by innovatively active engineering materials. A model is presented that can be used for the evaluation of innovation and production that can be applied to both engineering materials and en (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jainagesh Sekhar PhD (Committee Chair); Ronald Huston PhD (Committee Member); Steven Benintendi PhD (Committee Member); Jude Iroh PhD (Committee Member); Rodney Roseman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Materials Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, History

The warfare state is much older than the welfare state. For centuries, the relationship between militaries and the private manufacturing sector has been the most important point of interaction between the state and society. The naval-manufacturing relationship has even deeper historical roots: since warfare at sea has traditionally required much more sophisticated technology than warfare on land, nations have had to invest more money in navies in peacetime. In the late nineteenth century, two developments transformed the naval-manufacturing relationship. First, the intense naval competition preceding World War I increased the pace of technological change and the need for peacetime investment in naval technology. Second, the Second Industrial Revolution transformed the manufacturing sector into the industrial sector, and it accordingly altered the nature of military and naval technology. Torpedoes were in the vanguard of both developments. They played a significant role in the arms race before World War I because they threatened to revolutionize naval tactics and strategy. Navies realized that the tactical system built around capital ships primarily armed with big guns might give way to one built around smaller vessels primarily armed with torpedoes. At the strategic level, the ability of smaller vessels carrying torpedoes to sink larger ones made battle and blockade very risky. Given the potential of torpedoes to alter the metrics and application of naval power, navies worked feverishly to develop them before World War I. The sophistication of torpedo technology, however, complicated the task of turning potential into reality. Powered by fossil fuels and made with hundreds of small, steel, inter-changeable parts, torpedoes symbolized the Second Industrial Revolution at sea. Sending a torpedo prototype into mass production without adequately testing it beforehand would produce nightmares of assembly and operation. A robust research and development infrastructure w (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Geoffrey Parker PhD (Advisor); John Guilmartin PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Siegel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2009, Management

It is a well-accepted consensus in the literature that technological change is a key source of entrepreneurial opportunity. This work investigates the nature of the relationship between opportunity and the business cycle by examining the relationship between technological change and the business cycle. We use the application dates of the top 1% of US patents in terms of citations received and match these to a monthly series of economic expansions and contractions as defined by the NBER for the time period January 1973 to December 1992. The opportunity literature identifies two broad schools of thought; counter-cyclical arguments that suggest economic contractions are fertile times for the emergence of opportunity due to the release of resources previously employed or due to the opportunity cost of redirecting productive resources in times of economic expansion to new projects, and pro-cyclical arguments that suggest that access to financing or access to markets is enhanced during economic expansions thereby facilitating opportunity emergence. We find a strong pro-cyclical relationship for technological change in the private sector but a clear counter-cyclical relationship when considering the public sector. Further, the industries of focus between the two are quite different. If we accept, as Schumpeter argues, that technological change is the most significant source of entrepreneurial opportunity, then the resulting temporal pattern of technological change implies a temporal pattern for the emergence of entrepreneurial opportunity. Implications for both the entrepreneur and government are discussed.

Committee: Bo Carlsson (Committee Chair); Leonard Lynn (Committee Member); Susan Helper (Committee Member); Nicola Lacetera (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics; Management

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2013, Leadership and Change

Bringing innovation to the marketplace for new products and services involves creativity, a culture in which change flourishes, and leadership that thrives on transformation and complexity. This study explored the potential for market disruption or change based on innovations involving patents granted to nonfinancial services organizations that could affect financial services, specifically consumer or retail bank products. It involved analyzing documents related to recently granted patents and completing a mixed methods survey integrating the Delphi research technique. This method required multiple iterations of a survey presented to expert panelists or industry thought leaders to attempt to gain consensus ("Consensus", 2011) or general agreement by the group (Tersine & Riggs, 1976). With this research method, the goal is to gain an understanding of initial individual perspectives. Through an iterative process, then determine if, as a group, they can move toward a common vision of what is likely to happen after viewing other's perspectives. This research was specific to two innovations for which patents have been granted: facial recognition and digital wallets. Patents can provide insights into potential new developments planned by organizations. In some cases, patents can provide insights into innovation, potential threats, opportunities, or disruptions that could change the way a market operates. The goal of this research was to select two recent patents from many that have been granted, develop theoretical insights, and, through a mixed methods survey integrating the Delphi methodology, identify when or if these patents could have an impact on financial services. This research brought together thought leaders in an anonymous, collaborative approach to assess considerations and provide their perspective on these changes. This study served to help leaders drive innovation in financial services organizations and to understand how others perceive these inn (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mitchell Kusy Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Byrd Jacqueline Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sahm Patricia Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Banking; Business Administration; Business Community; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Intellectual Property; Management; Marketing; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Patent Law; Spirituality; Systems Design; Technology