Protecting intellectual property in foreign subsidiaries: An internal network defense perspective
研究了在知识产权保护薄弱的环境中，跨国公司如何通过调整子公司的内部网络结构（社交网络和知识网络）来防御知识产权泄露，并发现母公司的东道国经验会影响这些措施的效果。
Abstract This study examines firm internal network structures as a defense of intellectual property rights (IPR) in high-risk environments with inadequate IPR protection. Specifically, we investigate firm social and knowledge-based network structures individually. A foreign subsidiary can intensify social complexity by strengthening the small-worldness in its collaboration networks and attenuate knowledge-relatedness by decreasing the small-worldness in its knowledge networks. In a subsidiary, the effectiveness of these measures depends to some extent on the parent firm’s experience in the host country. Longitudinal data on 401 foreign subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry from 1980 to 2017 have been analyzed in a quasi-experiment using difference-in-differences and two-stage regression. The results provide empirical support for these ideas. Findings highlight the explanatory power of internal network structures when discussing knowledge protection and show the utility of taking an internal network defense perspective in examining IPR protection.