Environmental-related patent technology transfer effectiveness

Abstract

Purpose Environmental-related technology transfer is increasingly being viewed as a policy issue and a business goal to be pursued by countries in order to increase their global competitiveness. Despite this policy importance, the research analysing environmental-related technology transfer comparing international rates of participation is limited. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data using econometric analysis to compare environmental-related technology patents between Portugal and Australia in terms of environmental management, water-related adaptation, and climate change mitigation.

Findings The results suggest that environmental-related patents, in turn, are always registered in greater numbers by Australia than by Portugal but with both countries outpaced by the OECD average.

Research limitations/implications The research implications are that Australia has more international cooperation around the development of environmental-related technology patents than Portugal.

Practical implications The authors find that overall these patents do not have any statistically significant effect on predicting gross domestic product growth but there has been a higher number of patents for Australia focusing on water-related adaptation technology than for Portugal, which may be a result of policies aimed at increasing effective use of water in Australia.

Originality/value The results of the analysis suggest that the OECD member state cooperation increases the number of environmental-related technology patents and serves as a mechanism to facilitate internationalisation.