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Dynamic patterns of technology collaboration: a case study of the Chinese automobile industry, 1985–2010

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Abstract

To investigate patterns of technology collaboration within the Chinese automobile industry, this study employs a unique dataset of patent applications that reveal a record of 64,938 collaborative relations in the industry during the period from 1985 to 2010. Our results indicate that over 60 % of the total collaborations were conducted after China entered the WTO. The invention and utility types of patents account for 98 % of the total collaborations throughout the sample period. Using a network analysis method, we find that the key differences between domestic enterprises collaborating with indigenous enterprises (DD collaboration) and with foreign firms (DF collaboration) are in patent types and technology domains. The DF network is also denser and more centralized than the DD network, although the amount of nodes and links of the DD network is greater than that of the DF collaboration network. The analysis and visualization of the collaboration networks and corresponding largest components reveal that a large number of domestic enterprises prefer to collaborate with top global automobile manufacturers. We also find that a number of universities have become key players in the collaborations among industry, universities and research institutes. This study provides a deeper understanding of technology collaborations from various perspectives and also highlights several avenues for future research.

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Notes

  1. Although the R&D collaborations between foreign invested/owned firms can be an important topic, the focus of this paper is the DD, DF, and UIR R&D collaborations.

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Acknowledgments

This research is funded by national Science Foundation of China (grant no.71302133; grant no.71233002), Youth Project of Ministry of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Funding (grant no.13YJC790154), and the Sichuan University’s Special Research Program for the Philosophy Social Science from the Subordinate Universities of Ministry of Education’s Basic Research Foundation (SKYB201302; SKX201004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School of Sichuan University, Sichuan University, No. 29, Wangjiang Road, Chengdu, 610064, Sichuan, China

    Yuandi Wang & Xin Gu

  2. School of Business Administration, Hunan University, No.11, Lushan South Road, Changsha, 410082, Hunan, China

    Jian Li & Deming Zeng

  3. School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

    Lutao Ning

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  1. Yuandi Wang
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Correspondence to Jian Li.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Descriptive statistics of selected collaboration data
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Wang, Y., Li, J., Ning, L. et al. Dynamic patterns of technology collaboration: a case study of the Chinese automobile industry, 1985–2010. Scientometrics 101, 663–683 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1366-8

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