Interfirm knowledge transfer in multinational and single-country joint patenting: A technological distance analysis

Abstract

In today's highly competitive business environment, firms can ill afford the consequences of overlooking opportunities for innovation. An organization seeking to increase its existing knowledge base, in most cases, aims to identify and pursue useful knowledge available outside its borders. However, for companies interested in engaging in collaborative arrangements for innovations, systematic approaches for knowledge transfer may become a major challenge. In our research, we focus on the diffusion of innovative knowledge that occurs during a joint knowledge development process. We conduct an empirical study of joint patent applications and patent portfolios using the PATSTAT database spanning the period from 2004 to 2018, aiming to explore the impact inter-organizational collaboration in the form of joint patenting has on the distance between partners' technological bases. In addition, we study the changes in the technological distance when joint patenting occurs within-country and between-country partners. Our results suggest that engagement in joint patenting positively influences the technological proximity between partners and indicates the transmission and utilization of knowledge outside of firms' existing knowledge bases. Our findings contribute to knowledge related to innovation under conditions of interorganizational collaboration and provide a basis for further theory development and testing.