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Discussion Papers

No.876 The Technological Distance Between Chinese Firms: Deepening and Diversifying Technologies

by Koichiro KIMURA

February 2023

ABSTRACT

This study measures the technological distance between firms within and across industries as a case study of Chinese firms to investigate firms’ technology accumulation patterns. Specifically, cosine similarity is used to compare the technology positions generated by the patent applications of Chinese firms. The analysis shows that as the number of patent applications increases, firms tend to deepen the technological characteristics of each industry and firm while broadening the variety of technological fields. As a result, although the quantity and quality of technologies are critical, understanding the characteristics of technologies as a technological structure or system that differs from one firm to another is also crucial.

Keywords: technological distance, technology position, patent

JEL classification: O3, L1, L2

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