Strategic appropriability and technological positioning: determinants of Chinese EV manufacturers’ patenting in India

This study investigates the strategic selection mechanisms underlying international patenting by examining how Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers select patents from their domestic portfolios for filing in India. Shifting the focus from aggregate international patent flows to patent-level decision-making, we employ a choice-set framework to compare inventions selected for Indian filing with other domestic patents held by the same firm. The findings identify three main patterns. First, firms emphasise appropriability by favouring patents with broader claim scope and sole ownership. Second, internal technological positioning exhibits a nonlinear pattern consistent with a U-shaped relationship: patents that are either relatively distant from or closely aligned with the firm’s existing knowledge base are more likely to be selected than patents with intermediate levels of similarity. Third, external technological positioning exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship: firms are most likely to select inventions in technological areas with moderate competitor overlap, whereas inventions with either very low or very high overlap are less likely to be filed in India. Collectively, these findings provide a more detailed account of how patent appropriability and technological positioning are associated with international patent selection by emerging-market firms.