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.