  Summary of report topics and content:
  Local Search or Cross-Border? The Impact of Technological Distance between Firms on Collaborative Innovation
  In inter-firm collaborative innovation processes, knowledge search across organisational boundaries is critical to innovation, but is often constrained by technological, geographical and social boundaries. The ultimate impact of cross-border search on collaborative innovation is unclear, as firms crossing any of these types of boundaries can have both positive and negative consequences (increased creativity and reduced absorptive capacity). This study provides an in-depth analysis of the complex interactions of each of these cross-border searches and, based on a sample of 18,575 US patents co-invented by 6,595 firms between 1993 and 2002. Findings indicated that the net effect of inter-firm technological distance (i.e. searching across cognitive boundaries) on the quality of co-invented patents depends to a large extent on other types of cross-border searches, such as partnerships across regions and networks. The net effect is negative when the partners are in the same region and within the same network, and positive when the partnerships are from different regions and different networks. The findings suggest that cross-border search is critical to the success of collaborative innovation.
  Presenter: Huo Dong
  Associate Professor and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Economics and Management of Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen). Professor Huo is a reviewer for the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee, a Shenzhen Overseas High-Level Talent and a Nanshan District Pilot Talent. His research interests include the economics and management of technological innovation, patents and technical standards. He is the chair of one major research project of the National Social Science Foundation of China, two projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has participated in nearly 10 other national projects. His academic papers have been published in top international academic journals in the field of innovation research, including Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change.
  Moderator: Zeng Jingjing
  Professor and PhD supervisor, School of Public Administration, ZUEL
  Director of IIDPF Science and Technology Strategy and Policy Research Centre under the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology
  Forum information:
  Time: Thursday, 9th December 2021, 11:30 - 12:30
  Tencent Meeting ID: 543 980 141