Inventor cooperation network effects on technology diversification: the moderating role of intellectual property protection

ABSTRACT

Technological diversification can overcome the limitations imposed by an enterprise’s single technological capability and enables enterprises to recombine resources, thereby enhancing their competitive advantage. In-house inventor cooperation can improve the efficiency of the production factor combination and expand the scope of the enterprise’s technology base. This study empirically explores the effect of in-house inventor cooperation network on technology diversification. In addition, this study further investigates the moderating effect of intellectual property protection on the inventor cooperation network and on corporate technology diversification. An enterprise inventor cooperation network is embodied by its network location characteristics. Empirical results show that the difference in the location of the inventor cooperative network exhibits different effects on the diversification of enterprise technology. Moreover, intellectual property protection significantly weakens the incentive effect of the intermediary location of inventor cooperative network on corporate technology diversification.

KEYWORDS:

• Inventor cooperation network
• corporate technology diversification
• network location
• intellectual property protection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Xingteng Li is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Management of the University of Science and Technology of China. His primary research interests are management of innovation, technology and intellectual property.

Feng Feng is a professor in the School of Management of the University of Science and Technology of China. His primary research interests are innovation management and technology policy.

Shilei Cao is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Management of the University of Science and Technology of China. His primary research interests are technology innovation and environmental innovation.

Xiaobai Shen is a senior lecturer in the International and Chinese Business of the University of Edinburgh Business School. Her primary research interests are science, technology and innovation studies, business studies, and sociology.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71874173].