The recency of technological inputs and financial performance

Abstract Inventions differ in terms of the age of the knowledge base they build upon. We examine what effects differences in the recency of knowledge inputs have on financial performance. Using threshold regression analysis, we isolate three regimes that exhibit different associations between recency and stock return. We find that for firms whose new patents use inputs in the mid‐range of the technological recency distribution, the relationship is positive; higher recency leads to higher stock return. However, for firms whose new patents make use of either nascent or very mature technological inputs, the effects are negative; higher recency leads to lower stock return. These findings indicate that it is not firms utilizing the most recent technological inputs that experience the highest returns to their inventive activity. Indeed, firms operating at the technological input frontier have market returns significantly below the mean. Rather, it is firms whose new patents utilize medial‐aged technological inputs (i.e., firms using inputs slightly behind the technology frontier) that tend to experience the highest returns. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.