Patent Strategy Based on Performance Feedback: An Exploratory Case Study of Samsung Electronics

In this research, patent search process is introduced as technology-intensive firms’ learning mechanism. The patent search strategy is a firms’ effort to develop patents in a field that firms consider important for their performance. It is important to know how firms adjust their patent search strategy in the long term. This study is an exploratory case study on Samsung Electronics, to show how firms change or maneuver patent search strategy in a longitudinal situation under performance feedback mechanism. Our argument is 1) that firms change their patent strategy responding to the performance feedback, and 2) that firms also change their patent strategy in a specific direction that is suggested by the performance feedback literature.