Working Paper: NBER ID: w21735
Authors: Sari Pekkala Kerr; William R. Kerr
Abstract: We study the prevalence and traits of global collaborative patents for U.S. public companies, where the inventor team is located both within and outside of the United States. Collaborative patents are frequently observed when a corporation is entering into a new foreign region for innovative work, especially in settings where intellectual property protection is weak. We also connect collaborative patents to the ethnic composition of the firm's U.S. inventors and cross-border mobility of inventors within the firm. The inventor team composition has important consequences for how the new knowledge is exploited within and outside of the firm.
Keywords: global collaborative patents; ethnic composition; cross-border mobility; innovation
JEL Codes: F02; F22; F23; F60; J15; O19; O31; O32; O33; O34
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| US public companies entering new foreign markets (F23) | global collaborative patents (O36) |
| cross-border mobility of inventors (J61) | global collaborative patents (O36) |
| ethnic composition of a firm's inventive workforce (J79) | likelihood of generating collaborative patents (O36) |
| collaborative patents (O36) | performance similar to US-based teams (Z21) |
| collaborative patents (O36) | outperform foreign teams (O57) |
| collaborative patents (O36) | more claims, citations, and novel technology combinations (O36) |