Do acquisitions boost patents? An empirical analysis on Chinese and Indian Multinationals investing in Europe, Japan and USA
Roberta Rabellotti, Università di Pavia
Notwithstanding the tremendous soaring trend of outward investments from emerging economies to advanced countries, little is known about how much emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) benefit from acquisitions of firms in advanced countries in terms of their innovative output. This paper contributes to the literature investigating whether and how EMNEs gain technological advantages vis à vis incumbent firms. We address this issue analyzing the extent to which the acquisitions of companies in Europe (EU27), Japan and USA influence EMNEs international patent portfolio. We focus on a sample of medium- to high-tech EMNEs from China and India and investigate their acquisitions over the period 2004-2012. Our results suggest EMNEs do not benefit from acquiring more innovative firms located in the more innovative regions. Only those EMNEs with a good absorptive capacity are able to take advantage of the acquired knowledge, both directly and indirectly through the connections with region in which their targets are located.
About the speaker
Professor of Economics in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Università di Pavia in Italy. She has a Master of Science in Development Economics at the University of Oxford and a Doctor of Philosophy at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Her areas of expertise are the economics of innovation; economic development and regional economics. Her publications include books with Harvard University Press, Edward Elgar and Macmillan as well as numerous articles published in top academic journals. Prof. Rabellotti regularly advise international organizations such as UNIDO,UNCTAD, IADB, OECD and the European Commission on questions related to economic development (http://robertarabellotti.it)
Venue: Conference room (room 0.16 & 0.17)
Date: 25 February 2016
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
