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Innovating in the periphery: The impact of local and foreign inventor mobility on the value of Indian patents

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  • Alnuaimi, Tufool
  • Opsahl, Tore
  • George, Gerard

Abstract

We examine the impact of local and foreign labor mobility in India by modeling one regional and one global network, each of which captures the inter-organizational mobility of inventors. Our analysis of the regional network shows that, within India, the productivity of inventors does not improve when they move from foreign to Indian organizations. In the global network, we find that Indian organizations remain located in the periphery as a result of employing a small number of inventors from foreign organizations. However, in the instances when inventors are hired from foreign organizations, they are able to produce patents with a higher impact in comparison to inventors hired from other Indian organizations. Furthermore, when the inventors are hired from abroad, the impact of their patents is even higher in comparison. The implications of these findings for innovation and policy in the emerging economy context are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Alnuaimi, Tufool & Opsahl, Tore & George, Gerard, 2012. "Innovating in the periphery: The impact of local and foreign inventor mobility on the value of Indian patents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1534-1543.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:41:y:2012:i:9:p:1534-1543
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2012.06.001
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    3. Gilding, Michael & Brennecke, Julia & Bunton, Vikki & Lusher, Dean & Molloy, Peter L. & Codoreanu, Alex, 2020. "Network failure: Biotechnology firms, clusters and collaborations far from the world superclusters," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(2).
    4. Stefano Breschi & Francesco Lissoni & Ernest Miguelez, 2017. "Foreign-origin inventors in the USA: testing for diaspora and brain gain effects," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(5), pages 1009-1038.
    5. SAITO Yukiko & YAMAUCHI Isamu, 2015. "Inventors' Mobility and Organizations' Productivity: Evidence from Japanese rare name inventors," Discussion papers 15128, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
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    9. Elizabeth Webster, 2017. "The source of wealth," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 79-85, January.
    10. Stefano Breschi & Francesco Lissoni & Gianluca Tarasconi, 2014. "Inventor Data for Research on Migration and Innovation: A Survey and a Pilot," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 17, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    11. Haruo H. Horaguchi & Toichiro Susumago, 2022. "Global R&D Location Strategy of Multinational Enterprises: an Agent-Based Simulation Modeling Approach," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 457-479, December.
    12. Shu Yu & Takaya Yuizono, 2021. "A Proximity Approach to Understanding University-Industry Collaborations for Innovation in Non-Local Context: Exploring the Catch-Up Role of Regional Absorptive Capacity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    13. Qin, Fei, 2015. "Global talent, local careers: Circular migration of top Indian engineers and professionals," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 405-420.
    14. Qin, Fei & Wright, Mike & Gao, Jian, 2017. "Are ‘sea turtles’ slower? Returnee entrepreneurs, venture resources and speed of entrepreneurial entry," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 694-706.
    15. Jens K. Perret, 2022. "Interregional Inventor Mobility in the Russian Federation as Evidenced by European Patent Data," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 2457-2489, September.
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