Civil–Military Patents and Technological Knowledge Flows Into the Leading Defense Firms

Abstract

Drawing upon 106,181 patent applications by the world’s largest defense firms and 241,571 patent citations (2002–2011), this article has two main objectives. The first is to explore the factors affecting the production of mixed patents (those with potential dual applications in both military and civilian spheres). The second is to identify the causes of the use of military knowledge for civilian inventions (spin-off) and the use of civilian knowledge in military patented technologies (spin-in). Our calculations show highly significant coefficients for the variables capturing the “military technological capability” and the size of the company in explaining the production of mixed technologies. The spin-off process is affected by the military technological capability, the size of the firm, and the location. The spin-in mechanism is explained by the military technological capability and the location of the firm, while the size of the company is not relevant.