Spatiotemporal Evolution and Determinants of the Geography of Chinese Patents Abroad: A Case Study of Strategic Emerging Industries

Abstract

China’s rapid technological growth and aggressive globalization policies have led to an increasing interest in Chinese patents abroad. This study uses strategic emerging industries (SEIs) that are important for the future development of the world as examples and constructs a novel dataset of Chinese SEI patents abroad (1993–2017) to explore the spatiotemporal evolution and determinants of the geography of these patents. Our results show that the number of Chinese SEI patents abroad is growing rapidly, and the new-generation information technology industry is increasingly dominating, accounting for approximately 50% of all SEI patents abroad. Chinese SEI patents abroad are highly concentrated in the United States, Western Europe, and East Asia, and their influence is gradually spreading from African countries to developed countries. The host country’s intellectual property rights (IPR) protection level, technology market size and imitation risk have significant positive effects on Chinese SEI patents abroad, while the host country’s high-tech product market size and competition risk have negative effects on Chinese patents abroad. The conclusions provide new information for understanding Chinese patents abroad activities and the motivation of China’s technology globalization and provide evidence from an emerging country for research of the international diffusion of technology innovation.