ABSTRACT
This paper aims to evaluate the strategies of Brazilian manufacturing firms in their use of intellectual property (IP) and its impact on their export performance. Although the correlation between exports and innovative activities is already consolidated in the existing literature, this study contributes by analyzing the extent to which export performance of innovative firms is related to their different IP-related appropriation strategies. In order to determine this, we analyzed the export behaviour of innovative industrial firms, aiming to identify the relevance of each IP appropriation instrument, including invention patents, utility models, industrial designs and trademarks.
The paper presents an overview of previous findings about innovation, technological appropriability and export performance. It also discusses the relationship between innovation and exports in Brazil, showing that innovative Brazilian firms tend to export more than non-innovative ones, which corroborates the main literature findings. Using cross-section and panel data, the impact of technological appropriability on export performance of Brazilian innovative firms is evaluated.
