Foreign Inventors and Environmental-Related Technologies: The Case of US MSAs

Recent publications from the IPCC and UNEP emphasize that global efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change often fall short while its effects continue to worsen. One important contribution made to the fight against climate change is the development and deployment of environmental-related – or green – technologies (GT). While research investigating the characteristics of GTs has been growing, many questions remain unanswered. One area in need of further investigation concerns the role of agency.That is, who is responsible for the production of environmental-related technologies. Over the past decade, many studies relating to innovation have focused on foreign inventors. Foreign inventors act as international carriers of knowledge, promoting the development of new and unrelated technologies, such as green technologies. The present study aims to investigate the agency of US-based foreign inventors in regional GT diffusion and diversification using patent data from the USPTO. To do so, we leverage the patenting portfolios of inventors and their countries of origin to explain variations in innovative performance and specialization across US metropolitan statistical areas between the years 1990 and 2012. Evidence from previous literature would suggest that foreign inventors drive GT diffusion, however, their role in GT diversification is less clear. At the same time, both relationships may depend on the maturity of individual technologies highlighting that the contribution of foreign inventors is particularly influential at the earliest and latest stages along the GT life cycle.