Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • July 2018
  • Article
  • Economic Journal

Global Collaborative Patents

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:63
ShareBar

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

Innovation; Ethnic Networks; Migration; Technology Transfer; Mobility; Information Technology; Globalized Firms and Management; Diasporas; Patents; Ethnicity; Entrepreneurship; Research and Development; Foreign Direct Investment; Innovation and Invention; Globalization; United States

Citation

Kerr, Sari Pekkala, and William R. Kerr. "Global Collaborative Patents." Economic Journal 128, no. 612 (July 2018): F235–F272.
  • Read Now

About The Author

William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • November 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Swanson Health: Becoming a Super Seller

    By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Paige Boehmcke
    • November 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech’s Sandbox?

    By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr
    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Centralization and Organization Reproduction: Ethnic Innovation in R&D Centers and Satellite Locations

    By: William R. Kerr
More from the Authors
  • Swanson Health: Becoming a Super Seller By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Paige Boehmcke
  • Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech’s Sandbox? By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr
  • Centralization and Organization Reproduction: Ethnic Innovation in R&D Centers and Satellite Locations By: William R. Kerr
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College