Stronger Intellectual Property Rights Research Articles

Impact of Big Data on Carbon Emissions: Empirical Evidence from China’s National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone

Big data is a pivotal factor in propelling the digital economy forward and emerges as a novel driver in realizing the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This study focuses on a quasi-natural experiment, namely national big data comprehensive pilot zones (NBD-CPZs), and employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to identify the influence of big data on carbon emissions. The findings of this study are as follows. Overall, big data significantly reduces carbon emissions within the pilot zones. Mechanism analysis shows that big data reduces urban carbon emissions by promoting green innovation, optimizing energy structure, mitigating capital mismatch and improving public awareness of environmental protection. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the carbon reduction effect of big data are more pronounced in cities with high levels of digital economy, non-resource-based cities, cities with strong intellectual property rights protection and the Guizhou Province. Spatial effect analysis indicates that within a radius of 400–500 km, the NBD-CPZ increases urban carbon emissions, signifying a significant siphoning effect; within a radius of 500–900 km, the NBD-CPZ reduces urban carbon emissions, signifying a significant spillover effect, and beyond a distance of 900 km, the spatial effect of the NBD-CPZ is not significant. Based on the above conclusions, this study puts forward several policy recommendations to effectively exert the carbon emission reduction effect of big data.

Managerial ability, intellectual property rights, R&D: does firm age play a role?

PurposeThe interplay between individual and collective creativity and its translation into innovation is a critical yet complex challenge in the ever-evolving innovation landscape. This study delves into the intricate relationship between managerial ability, intellectual property rights (IPRs) and research and development (R&D) investments contextualized within the dynamics of leverage, firm life stages and tangibility for pharmaceutical firms in the Asia-Pacific region. By exploring how micro-level factors influence macro-level innovation processes, this study aims to contribute to the broader understanding of creativity and innovation, a theme at the heart of addressing contemporary global challenges.Design/methodology/approachEconometric methodologies were used to analyse a data set comprising 2,660 firm-year observations spanning the decade from 2011 to 2020.FindingsA key finding was that companies with lower managerial prowess strategically leverage R&D intensity to signal their value to the market and accrue reputational currency. The research unearths a significant positive relationship between managerial ability, IPRs and R&D investment. In environments characterized by strong managerial acumen and robust IPR safeguards, firms exhibit a heightened propensity to allocate resources to R&D endeavours. This underscores the role of intellectual leadership and legal protections in shaping R&D strategies within the pharmaceutical domain. Incorporating firm life stages as a moderating factor reveals that firm maturity fundamentally influences the interplay between managerial ability, IPRs and R&D expenditure.Originality/valueThese findings’ implications resonate profoundly within policy-making circles and pharmaceutical firms’ day-to-day operational strategies, underscoring the pivotal role of intellectual capital and legal safeguards in shaping the future of innovation in the Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical sector.

Nonmonetary awards and innovation: Evidence from winning China's Top Brand Contest

We use the short-lived, but high-profile, China Top Brand Award to examine the causal effects of nonmonetary awards on firm innovation. To do so, we create a panel dataset by matching official China Top Brand Award recipients to the innovation outputs of listed companies. Results from difference-in-differences estimates show that firms that received the China Top Brand Award have a higher number, and better quality, of filed patents. We find that the positive effects of winning the China Top Brand Award on innovation outputs operate through higher government subsidies to winning firms. We also find that the positive effects of award-winning are stronger among state-owned enterprises, larger enterprises, and better-performing enterprises, as well as in provinces with stronger intellectual property rights protection. Our results are robust to a series of sensitivity checks.

The importance of intellectual property: Analyzing the impact of resource efficiency improvements in the mineral sector

This study investigates the relationship between Natural resource efficiency improvements and intellectual property (IP) rights in the Chinese mineral sector from 2010 to 2020. Utilizing a robust econometric model to analyze data over a decade, our research aims to quantify the effects of efficiency improvements on the creation and enforcement of IP rights within this sector. Findings indicate a positive correlation of regions demonstrating significant resource efficiency gains also show enhanced IP rights protection. This suggests that improvements in resource efficiency not only drive innovation in mineral processing technologies but also necessitate stronger IP rights to safeguard these innovations. The study concludes with a policy implication emphasizing the need for integrated strategies that promote both resource efficiency and IP rights protection in the mineral sector, highlighting their mutual reinforcement for sustainable development and innovation. This research offers crucial insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders, advocating for a harmonized approach to fostering innovation and sustainability in China's rapidly evolving mineral industry.

Bank market structure and firm innovation-evidence from China.

This study explores the impact of bank market structure on firm innovation in China using a two-way fixed effects model. Our analysis is based on a dataset comprising 2,412,316 firm-city level observations. Our findings suggest that there exists a U-shaped relationship between bank market structure and firm innovation in China. Specifically, we identify that the financing channel is a crucial pathway through which bank market structure influences firm innovation. Moreover, our results indicate that this relationship is mainly driven by small firms and innovative firms, and is more pronounced in regions with stronger intellectual property rights protection or greater openness to foreign markets. In sum, this study contributes to the existing literature by advancing our understanding of the impact of bank market structure on innovation in Chinese firms.

A comprehensive review on technology transfer

In the evolving corporate world, there's a growing focus on leveraging technological assets through technology transfer, a trend fueled by globalization, economic liberalization, and stronger intellectual property rights since the World Trade Organization's inception. These factors have integrated technology transfer as a critical aspect of the global business framework. However, the process of technology transfer is complex, and transferees often lack the necessary skills for effective management. While existing literature extensively covers these topics, it notably lacks practical solutions for these challenges. To bridge this gap, this paper introduces a novel "Life Cycle Approach for Planning and Implementing a Technology Transfer Project." This approach is designed to help avoid common pitfalls and address key management issues in technology transfer. The study begins by exploring the concept of technology transfer and reviews several existing models. It evaluates their pros and cons, leading to the proposition of the "Life Cycle Approach." This innovative model is intended to resolve frequent problems encountered by technology transferees, providing a structured methodology for managing technology transfer initiatives. The paper concludes with a mention of a project by the UNESCAP Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT), which utilizes this Life-Cycle concept. This project exemplifies the approach's practicality in enhancing the Asia-Pacific region's technology transfer capabilities, highlighting its relevance and applicability in diverse global contexts.

Climate impact, institutional context, and national climate change adaptation IP protection rates

We study how the physical effects of climate change motivate entrepreneurs to develop and protect climate change adaptation (CCA) intellectual property (IP) in heterogeneous ways across countries. Integrating the sustainable entrepreneurship literature with the attention-based view, we show that country-level climate impact redirects managerial attention to the disruptive potential of climate change and spurs the sector into action to pursue and protect CCA-related IP. We also find that strong intellectual-property rights regulations and environmental movements in countries strengthen this effect. Our results extend the sustainable entrepreneurship literature by showing how the geography of climate impact explains how CCA IP protection efforts are distributed globally. Executive summaryWhy do entrepreneurs in some countries engage in more climate change adaptation (CCA) intellectual property (IP) protection than others? We postulate that entrepreneurs' attention is simultaneously situated in their country's climatic and institutional environments, and that these contexts shape the salience of CCA IP protection. Formally, we predict that entrepreneurs who would normally deprioritize CCA IP protection as an opportunity in the face of more urgent socioeconomic issues become more attuned to it as their country's climate impact increases. We then theorize institutional conditions that influence entrepreneurs' responsiveness to climate impact. First, we predict that stronger intellectual property rights institutions reduce entrepreneurs' uncertainty in capturing rents from their CCA IP and hence strengthen the relationship between climate impact and CCA IP protection. Second, we predict that informal institutions aligned with environmental movements increase the salience of climate impacts to corporate entrepreneurs by spurring their interests in environmental issues and hence also strengthen the climate impact-CCA IP protection relationship. Our empirical analyses using 689 country-year observations consisting of 95 countries over the period 2005 to 2015 reveal that country-level climate impact drives CCA IP protection, especially when there are strong intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes and environmental movements.

How can MNEs benefit from internationalizing their R&D across countries with both weak and strong IPR protection?

Although MNEs internationalize their R&D not only in developed countries but also in emerging economies that typically feature weak protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), it remains unclear how this strategic decision affects their productivity performance. This limitation has resulted in a rather incomplete understanding of why some MNEs become more productive through R&D internationalization while others do not. This study develops a new explanation, suggesting that R&D internationalization does not affect the productivity of all MNEs equally because of differences in the idiosyncratic way in which MNEs geographically distribute their R&D units across weak and strong IPR protection countries. In advancing this explanation, the study challenges the view that weak IPR protection is disadvantageous for MNEs by showing that (and specifying how) it: 1) increases the efficacy of MNEs' internal R&D, 2) strengthens the advantages of accessing globally dispersed knowledge, and (3) improves MNEs' ability to exploit cross-country differences in IPR protection. The study enhances understanding of the complex role of IPR protection, shifts scholarly attention from the degree of R&D internationalization to how MNEs should internationalize their R&D, and clarifies how the IPR context of their location choices matters.

Direct foreign investment and intellectual property reform in the South

AbstractWe study the association between intellectual property (IP) reform in developing countries and their foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows over 2004–2015, after their transition period under the World Trade Organization. Using conditional difference‐in‐differences estimation, we find unambiguous evidence that stronger IP rights spur FDI inflows. Further, this response is heterogenous across countries and time. Whereas the effect of a unit increase in IP protection on the percentage increase in inflows remains about 0.50 for countries with small magnitudes of knowledge assets (roughly 15 ‘international patents’), it declines to about 0.25 for countries with larger knowledge capital (say, 5000 ‘international patents’). The results are robust to numerous robustness checks.

The impact of intellectual property rights protection on low-carbon trade and foreign direct investments

Climate negotiations on low-carbon technology transfer have largely revolved around the role of intellectual property rights (IPR). Some countries consider a strong IPR regime to be a necessary condition for technology transfer, while others argue that it limits developing countries' access to affordable green technologies. We contribute to this discussion by assessing the effect of IPR protection on the two main channels of international low-carbon technology transfer, namely trade in low-carbon capital goods and foreign direct investment (FDI) by firms owning low-carbon technologies. Our data describe transfer through these channels among 140 countries in eight climate-friendly technology areas between 2006 and 2015. We find that stronger IPR protection in recipient countries increased transfer in six technology areas (solar PV, solar thermal, wind, heating, lighting, and cleaner vehicles), while the effect is statistically insignificant in the other two (hydro and insulation). The results differ slightly when focusing on the case of non-OECD countries. Stricter IPRs did not have a statistically significant impact on trade in low-carbon capital goods, but they accelerated FDI in almost all low-carbon technology areas.

Public governance and corporate innovation: evidence from a quasi-natural event in China

ABSTRACT Using a unique quasi-natural event, i.e. gangdom and evil forces (hereafter, GEs) elimination in China, we investigate the relationship between the public governance proxied by GEs elimination and corporate innovation based on the data of Chinese listed firms from 2013 to 2021. The results show that the GEs elimination leads to a 0.39% increase in corporate innovation investment. Quantitatively, the increase is approximately equivalent to 4.42 million yuan for a firm of median innovation investment. Furthermore, we find that the GEs elimination increases corporate innovation through two possible channels: relieving financing constraints and intensifying market competition. In addition, we also reveal that the effects of GEs elimination on corporate innovation are stronger in firms located in a better marketization environment and a stronger Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection environment. Our main results pass a series of robustness tests and endogeneity issues.

Do stronger intellectual property rights protections raise productivity within the context of trade liberalization? Evidence from China

Total factor productivity (TFP) is essential for the firm, and research shows it is affected by many factors, such as institutional quality. However, less attention has focused on intellectual property rights protection (IPP). Using an integrated Chinese manufacturing enterprises database from 2000 to 2007 and an instrumental variable estimator jointly with the difference-in-differences approach to account for endogeneity of the IPP variable, we explore the effects of stricter IPP on manufacturer TFP at the province-industry level. First, we find that, on average, stronger IPP raises the TFP of Chinese manufacturers within the context of trade liberalization. Second, we examine the mechanisms explaining our finding—tighter IPP can improve firm TFP by encouraging more innovational activities and the importing of capital goods with higher quality. Our main results are robust to a set of alternative specifications even when the 2008 financial crisis is considered.

Intellectual property rights and trade: The exceptional case of GMOs

AbstractThis paper examines how foreign intellectual property rights (IPRs) affect US bilateral exports of genetically modified crops (GMOs). We apply the structural gravity model to examine GMO trade between the United States and the countries that comprise the rest of the world. Our econometric method includes the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimator. We use panel data including measures of countries’ IPR regimes, plant patentability, plant variety rights, GMO regulations and asynchronous approvals of GMOs. Results show the United States tends to export fewer GMO crops to countries with strong IPR regimes, plant patentability and plant variety rights. These results are consistent with the market power effect, where the United States restricts exports to countries with strong protections to extract monopoly prices. Second, enforcement of IPRs strengthens the market power effect. Third, the market power effect is strong alongside with GMO regulations and asynchronous approvals. Fourth, the market power effect is larger for self‐pollinating crops vs. hybrids. These findings are robust across a variety of specifications. However, we also find a price premium in countries with less ease of US market access, with more domestic production of GMOs, and with weak traceability requirements. These features play a stronger role than IPRs in determining price.

Impact of stronger intellectual property rights regime on innovation: Evidence from de alio versus de novo Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms

We examine the impact of a stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) regime through the adoption of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on innovation by Indian firms in the bio-pharmaceutical industry. We find that differences in the IPR regime at the time a firm was founded led to subsequent differences in firms’ propensity to innovate and their nature of innovations. Building on institutional change theory, we argue that firms created under the pre-TRIPS regime, which we refer to as de alio firms, have a lower propensity to innovate and have a focus on process innovations. De novo firms, which are firms created under TRIPS, have a greater propensity to innovate and have a focus on product innovations. Further, we study how international technology alliances have helped Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms to overcome their limitations arising due to institutional imprints and to improve their innovation capabilities. Data on 164 Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms from 1995 to 2018 is used to empirically test our hypotheses.

The role of information availability: A longitudinal analysis of technology entrepreneurship

The rapid spread of digital technologies has fostered an assumption that all entrepreneurs have equal and easy access to knowledge stocks irrespective of their context. We challenge this assumption by examining the contextual influence of information availability and argue that technology entrepreneurship involves a search process reliant on timely access to ideational components. We hypothesize that in contexts where information is more readily available, potential technology entrepreneurs are at an advantage, resulting in higher rates of technology entrepreneurship. Even after controlling for other important factors, such as polity, educational attainment, research and development spending, foreign direct investment, and gross domestic product growth, our results show a positive relationship between information availability and the proportion of entrepreneurs who pursue technology-based ventures instead of low-tech ventures. We further find that the effect of information availability on technology entrepreneurship increases in the presence of stronger intellectual property rights, suggesting that information availability enhances technology entrepreneurship more readily in contexts with incentives for innovation disclosure.

IPR Law Protection and Enforcement and the Effect on Horizontal Productivity Spillovers from Inward FDI to Domestic Firms: A Meta-analysis

We study the role of the strength of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) law protection and enforcement in influencing horizontal productivity spillovers from inward FDI to domestic firms in host countries. While most WTO countries adopted strong IPR legislation due to exogenous pressure resulting from the signing of the Trade-Related Aspects of IPR (TRIPS) agreement, public IPR enforcement strength continues to vary significantly between countries. We meta-analyse 49 studies and find that public IPR enforcement strength has a direct positive effect on horizontal productivity spillovers from inward FDI to domestic firms and a negative moderating effect on the relationship between IPR law protection strength and horizontal productivity spillovers from inward FDI to domestic firms.

Culture, intellectual property rights, and technology adoption

This study explains the differences in technology adoption as a result of both culture and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. We use data for 83 countries and 24 technologies for the time period 1980–2000. An individualistic culture, a strong IPR protection regime, and their joint effect are positively associated with technology adoption. The results hold up to a host of robustness checks.

Indian Trademark Law Enforcement

In an extremely strong protection of IP rights, well documented IP laws are the key factors for economic growth, FDI investment and competitiveness. Various studies have shown that economic growth is closely related to how well the economy encourages, stimulates and protects research and development. The effectiveness of regulatory intellectual property rights (IPR) mechanism is a driving force for full innovative capacity and economic growth and business/employment expansion. A strong and effective IPR regime enforces legal and rightful mechanism for inventors, investment opportunities and further scope of business/ employment growth. In protection of intellectual property, the role of enforcement agency is extremely vital and critical. However, in India, barring various steps have recently been taken to strengthen implementation of intellectual property enforcement. There has been very low detection of these IPR crimes because of various reasons. Strong IPR implementation contribute to every country’s economy, weak regulation does an opposite impact. IPR crime is a complex white collar crime. Its impact is hardly visible though it has cascading multiple effects on industry, government taxes, economy, employees, status of country and diminishing image on world platform. The officials who are dealing with must have rigorous training and should be equipped with most modern machines and equipments as this is new modern warfare. Barring legislative changes, Indian Government has taken various strong efforts with the more efficient intellectual property rights protection. Indian enforcement agencies are seen working in the area of IP protection/enforcement and but the levels of piracy is not arrested as number of IP crimes are going unreported sufficiency.

Intellectual Property Rights and the Protection of Innovations

I study how weak intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes affect firms’ innovation protection strategies. I build on transaction cost economics to explain four strategies to address not only the weak institutional IPR of ineffective regulatory and judicial systems traditionally discussed, but also the new weak technological IPR arising from the spread of digital technologies that facilitate the unauthorized diffusion of IPR. The four innovation protection strategies are (1) Defense, which is the traditional strategy of investing in legal defense to deter imitation in conditions of strong institutional and technological IPR; (2) Obsolescence, in which firms invest to make their innovations obsolete to reduce imitation in situations of strong institutional but weak technological IPR; (3) Complexity, in which firms invest in increasing the complexity of innovations to reduce imitation in situations of weak institutional but strong technological IPR; and (4) Convenience, in which firms invest in the convenient platforms to reduce incentives for imitation in conditions of weak institutional and technological IPR. These ideas question the usual argument of weak IPR leading firms to reduce investments by proposing instead the increase in investments to induce the transformation of the lack of formal transactions between firm and imitators into formal contractual relationships.

The state of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in Latin America and its implications for innovation and growth

This article reviews the primary implications of having strong intellectual property rights (IPRs) for innovation in the context of the situation in Latin America. Specifically, the article reviews the relationships, as found in the literature, between strong IPR protection and important economic and innovation-related variables both for developed and developing countries. Beyond its focus on Latin America, the paper also provides evidence and explains the situation of the different IPR regimes; describes the existing regional and global legislation and initiatives; and looks into the debate regarding the effect of IPRs in developing countries.