Intellectual Property Rights Protection,innovation And Firm's Internationalization

After more than 30 years of rapid economic growth,China's economy is gradually entering the stage of New Normal marked by "medium-high speed,optimal structure,new impetus and more challenges".Under the challenge of increasingly saturated domestic market and homogeneity competition,internationalization has become the new driving force for Chinese enterprises to seek a new round of growth.The Chinese government has been actively encouraging enterprises in various industries to implement the strategy of "going out",carry out strategic export and outward direct investment,and actively transfer to the high-end market,aiming to enhance industrial innovation capability,realize industrial transformation and upgrading.Intellectual property rights in the form of patents,copyrights and trademarks play a very important role in promoting innovation and sustaining economic growth.They are not only the foundation for enterprises to survive,achieve long-term development and go to the international market,but also the important resource and core competitiveness of enterprises to expand overseas markets.The digital revolution and technological breakthroughs of the past years have made intellectual property become the forefront of economic,social and political interests.Therefore,it is of vital significance for the research to make intellectual property rights protection,innovation and enterprises' internationalization in a unified framework.It also gives us much inspiration to promote the construction of Chinese intellectual property protection powers and the new system of open economy.Firstly,based on a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2004 to 2015,this article builds a comprehensive indicator of intellectual property rights protection,and examines how region-specific intellectual property protection of the home country affects firm's internationalization.The empirical results show that region-specific intellectual property protection of the home country has a positive impact on firm's internationalization.Innovation and financial constraints are the main channels through which home IPR protection affects corporate internationalization.In addition,the effects of home IPR protection depend on the ownership types of firms.Compared with state-owned enterprises,the internationalization process of non-state-owned enterprises is more susceptible to IPR protection in the region.Secondly,this article takes the product life cycle theory,new-new trade theory,resource-based view and institution-based view as the theoretical basis.Taking Chinese listed companies as the study object,the paper investigates the effects ofinnovation on the entry,exit and survival of international market.Empirical results show:(1)Innovation has a significant positive influence on the international market entry of enterprises,that is,the enhancement of innovation capability can help promote the entry of enterprises into the international market.The higher the level of intellectual property protection in the region where firms locate,the greater the promotion effect of innovation ability on firms' entry into the international market.Ownership has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between innovative capability and firms' entry into the international market.Compared with non-state-owned enterprises,the effect of innovation capability on state-owned enterprises' entry into the international market is more obvious.(2)Innovation has a significant negative impact on enterprises' exit of international market,that is,the enhancement of innovation ability can help enterprises reduce the probability of international market withdrawal.And this effect is different according to the industrial heterogeneity.(3)Innovation plays an active role in the survival of enterprises after entering the international market.The more innovative enterprise is,the longer it will survive in the international market.Thirdly,based on a sample of Chinese innovation-oriented firms from 2008 to2011,this article empirically tests the relationship between independent R&D and innovation performance by integrating the institution-based review into the research framework of economics and management.Based on this,it examines the moderating effects of R&D internationalization and the factors which have influence on the effect.The empirical results suggest that:(1)Independent R&D has significant positive influence on innovation performance.With the increasing of internal R&D expenditure,firms will have more technological resources,which help to enhance the innovative performance of firms.(2)R&D internationalization has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between independent R&D and innovation performance.It suggests that the promoting effect of independent R&D on innovation performance is much stronger in firms that have overseas R&D centers.(3)The moderating effect of R&D internationalization will be different according to the ownership and listed situation.Finally,the paper summarizes the research conclusions,and puts forward policy implications.(1)The Chinese government should improve legal framework on IPR.At the same time,the local government should continuously refine the supporting measures for IPR laws and regulations,enhance the supervision,improve theefficiency of IPR law enforcement,and create a favorable environment for innovation to promote the sustainable development of open economy.(2)Enterprises play a key role in technological innovation,so that they should make efforts to enhance the innovative capability.At the same time,companies should focus on the relationship between innovation resources and institutional factors,making innovation resources aligned with external IPR environment and internal ownerships.(3)Enterprises should make R&D internationalization as a strategic choice.Based on own nature and financial resources,firms should make a long-term development plan for R&D internationalization,rather than expand overseas R&D centers blindly.