Open innovation and patenting activity in health care

Purpose – The study aims to explore the interplay between open innovation and intellectual property. Differently from previous studies, we argue that open innovation fosters firm’s patenting activity. Design/methodology/approach – We use linear regression analysis to test model’s hypotheses. Data are drawn from the Eurostat statistics and refer to a large sample of European firms (NACE Rev.2). Findings – The findings confirm that open innovation fosters patenting activity in health care, also thanks to huge governments’ expenditures in this market. Research limitations/implications – The study focuses solely on European firms and it adopts a traditional linear approach. So, we cannot exclude that different dynamics may occur across European borders.Future research should address this concern by focusing on multi-country comparative studies. Practical implications – Open innovation is the most suitable model for health industry, because it improves both innovation performance and intellectual capital of firms. Originality/value – The study tackles an existing gap of the literature by considering how the presence of large customers impacts the strength of intellectual property protection.