The impact of international patenting on corporate patenting activities: Evidence from Korea

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of international patenting on corporate patenting activities, using a novel firm-level dataset from Korea. After making an overseas patent application for the first time, firms increase their overall patenting activity, both domestically and internationally, relative to similar firms that operate only in the domestic market for ideas. The improvement occurs in both cited and uncited patents, and these effects are persistent and grow over the 5-year period following international entry. Furthermore, young firms benefit more than mature firms from global engagement. Our findings suggest a role for policy.