Abstract
Additive synergies are contrasted with multiplicative ones in the context of post-acquisition patent content. Multiplicative-innovation synergies are indicated where a firm's prior-art patents were granted in technologies that are different than those of a focal patent's grant. Such content patterns suggest that inventors have searched to utilize technologies that are beyond locally-expected alternatives. In synthesizing these unexpected combinations of technologies, firms can extend their strategic scope by increasing their sources of revenue generation as well as improve returns on the assets that they have expended to explore and synthesize novel inventions. Using a backward-dispersion patent-citation measure to identify firms having patterns associated with higher multiplicative-innovation synergies, we found that such firms enjoyed higher returns on assets.