創新活動是企業持續成長的動力之一，企業可透過研發投資達成其策略性的目標。雖然企業相當重視研發活動的投資，但研發活動為公司股東創造財富，過去的實證研究並沒有一致的結果。其可能原因有二：一為會計報表所揭露的資訊不足，二為研發活動本身的高度不確定性。由於專利隱含了大量的技術資訊，可視為反映企業創新能力的重要指標，故對於研發活動之價值創造具有認證功能，同時亦可降低資本市場的資訊不對稱性。為了衡量公司之研發投資是否能為股東創造價值，本研究採用專利權作為新的衡量指標，欲瞭解當公司宣告增加對研發活動之投資時，資本市場上的投資人對其股票價格的反應是否會因公司過去的創新能力而有所不同。此處將著重於探討公司所擁有的專利數量、專利引用次數，以及專利原創性與資本市場對公司股價反應間的關係。本研究之實證結果顯示，專利數量對宣告公司所能獲得的累積異常報酬具有正向且顯著的影響力，表示若公司過去所擁有的專利數量越多，當其宣告新的研發投資時，資本市場對其股價會生較佳之評價。至於專利引用記錄則與宣告公司的累積異常報酬呈現負向影響關係，此結果與研究假設相符合；表示若公司專利引用先前專利的次數越多，其創新能力越弱，資本市場對其宣告增加研發投資的反應也就越小。此外，代表公司創新能力的專利原創性指標則呈現正向且顯著的解釋能力，顯示若公司擁有專利的原創程度越高，投資人在對其宣告研發投資時的信心會較強烈，資本市場對其股價的反應也會較佳。
故綜合以上結果，可發現不論是專利數量、專利引用記錄與專利原創性等三個專利指標對於研發投資宣告效果的影響方向均與本研究之預期方向一致，此一結果顯示專利資訊的確可提供資本市場更豐富的研發相關資訊，投資人可藉由參考專利相關指標，解決在評估研發投資之市場價值時，所面臨的不確定性，進而使股價可正確地反映出宣告公司投資研發活動所能為股東創造的市場價值。

Although R&D investments are companies’ growth engine, we still do not have a consistent conclusion of R&D announcement effects. Does R&D create more wealth effects than other investment projects? The previous studies showed us mixed evidence. Many scholars are interested in what causes these different evidences. There are two reasons. First one is R&D’s accounting treatment. Second one is R&D’s high uncertainty.
Generally speaking, based on GAAP, R&D spending will be treated as expense. Therefore, in financial statements, we just find “R&D expenditures”, the only item related to R&D activities. According to previous studies, for companies with lots of knowledge assets, their financial statements can’t reflect the true value of companies. It’s very difficult for investors to evaluate companies’ innovation capabilities and market value precisely if they only refer to financial reports.
In addition, R&D activities have higher uncertainty than the other operation activities. That’s why capital market can’t measure R&D’s value accurately because we don’t know whether R&D investments will succeed or not in the future.
However, in the recent years, more and more scholars introduce patent-related indexes to measure R&D’s value. These scholars consider patents can reflect the outcomes of R&D investments, companies’ innovation capabilities, and the technology linkage. Compared with accounting statements, patents can provide more sufficient information to investors and help them to judge firm’s market value. Based on these, we introduce three kinds of patent-related indexes in this thesis to discuss the relation among patents, R&D spending announcements, and stock market reactions.
Here, we assume that stock market reactions will depend on firms’ innovation capabilities. If a company has strong technology abilities, it means this company has more R&D successful experience and knowledge stock. When it does new R&D, it has higher possibility to succeed. Therefore, stock market may have positive reactions on its stock price.
Our findings support four hypotheses. We find out patent-related measures really can give investors more information about companies R&D activities. Investors can depend on these patent indexes to reduce the information asymmetry and then make more precisely expectations about the market value of R&D spending announcement effects.

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