Chinese multinational enterprises bridging technologies across home and host regions

In Chapter 6, Amendolagine et al. (2020) explores cross-border acquisitions of Chinese small and medium enterprises in high tech industries, done within EU, USA and Japan. The chapter highlights the roles of these firms as connecting nodes between the home and host regions, where regions are characterized by different degrees of technological distance. The chapter uses a Technology Proximity Index, in order to analyze how homogeneous the patents are in terms of technological classes in the home and host regions. The descriptive analysis is based on a sample of 95 acquisitions occurring between 2003 and 2011 and on the investors’ patent portfolio characteristics, such as technology specialization, experience, size and number of collaborative patents. The chapter reveals that investors with stronger knowledge bases and with more diversified and larger patent portfolios are more likely to invest in more technologically distant regions. In addition, although they are more involved in collaborative patents at home and abroad, these investors are not more likely than other Chinese multinational firms to establish international collaborations for patents.