An institutional view on the leverage of external patent law expertise and patenting performance: Insights from China

Drawing on the institutional setting in China, this study examines how firms seek legal resources and their effects on patenting performance in a weak and transitional intellectual property regime. We illustrate that due to weak protection of intellectual property rights in China, firms rely on external legal resources, which are found to be positively related to patenting performance in terms of the capability of external patent law expertise, but negatively related in terms of knowledge diversity. The marginal effect of the level of external patent law expertise on patenting performance is positive when research and development (R&D) investment is low and negative when it is high, illustrating the negative interaction between R&D investment and the level of external patent law expertise. Furthermore, institutional pressure and support moderate the effect of the level of external patent law expertise on patenting performance. This study advances the understanding of the impact of patent institutions on patent strategies in transition economies and provides novel implications for policy and patent management.