How does the global network of research collaboration affect the quality of innovation?

Abstract

This study examines how research collaboration of firms affects the quality of their innovation outcomes using comprehensive patent data for firms in the world from 1991 to 2010. Identifying research collaboration by co-patenting relationships, we find that research collaboration with other firms, particularly with foreign firms, leads to substantial improvement in innovation quality. We also observe a positive effect of the brokerage in the global network, especially for firms with international collaboration links. These results are applicable to the effect on the quality of innovation achieved individually without any collaboration. Therefore, our findings emphasize the importance of links with a variety of partners, particularly with foreign partners to improve innovation performance. Finally, we find that the collaboration effect is larger in the 2000s than in the 1990s and varies depending on firm size and across countries.

Double Counting in Mystery: Journey of Intermediate Products in Multi-Country Trade

“…This is because imitation/adoption/knowledge transfer 27 most likely to advantage for developing nations. Thus, geographically diversified supply chains are not only resilient but also more innovative by learning new knowledge from distant partners because international research collaboration is effective in fostering innovation (Iino et al, 2021;Nabeshima et al, 2018).…”

“…Empirical evident highlight that the knowledge effect relying on diversifying products is more productive if intermediate products travel among countries due to cultural and capacity differences (Iino et al, 2021). It can be said that the less market/regional concentration, the greater the productivity/innovation and dynamic recovery; thus, the journey of the intermediate product among sector-country pairs contributes more if the imports and exports are diverse and resilient 28 .…”

Analysis of the Dynamic Landscape of Scientific Innovation in the Chip Domain

“…At the country/region level, this study counts scientific papers from different countries/regions, analyzes the number of papers output and world share of TOP10 countries/regions, and introduces the AI index as an indicator to compare the relative effort levels of high-producing countries/regions. It has been shown that scientific collaboration can lead to a substantial improvement in the quality of innovation (Iino, Inoue, Saito, & Todo, 2021), most likely because various knowledge is combined in the collaboration and the impact of international collaboration is much greater than the impact of domestic collaboration because foreign collaborators have knowledge that is not available domestically. Therefore, based on the international collaboration thesis, this study also maps the network of collaborative relationships between countries/regions that reflect knowledge flows.…”

Geographic Diversification of the Supply Chains of Japanese Firms

“…Iino et al . (2021) reveal that a firm's collaboration with foreign partners substantially improve the quality of its innovation measured by patent citations, although the density of its collaboration network is negatively correlated with the quality.…”

“…For this purpose, links with firms in developed countries with new advanced knowledge that is not available in Japan should be more beneficial to Japanese firms. Moreover, if Japanese firms can engage in research collaboration with technologically advanced firms in developed countries, the benefits should be larger (Iino et al ., 2021). These multi‐layered international firm networks, that is, supply chains, shareholding relationships, and research collaboration, can even generate trust among partners and be long‐lasting, just like keiretsu networks that are also often multi‐layered (Section 2.3).…”