Although MNEs create inventions both internally and collaboratively with partners as well as within and across countries, we know very little about the effects that combining such inventive activities have on their profitability. This study develops an invention-based perspective that considers how MNEs' profitability is influenced by the ways they organize the development of inventions across organizational boundaries (internally or collaboratively) and geographic boundaries (within or across countries). This perspective postulates that profitability is not merely driven by advantageous technological endowments but also by how such technological assets have been created. Accordingly, it explains why specific combinations of inventive activities across the two boundaries affect the likelihood of creating breakthrough inventions differently, provide different revenue and cost advantages, and have different effects on MNEs’ profitability. It further explains why cross-country inventions contribute more to profitability when they are internalized, while within-country inventions are more profitable when they are created collaboratively.

尽管跨国企业在内部和与合作伙伴以及在国家内部和国家之间合作创造发明，但我们对结合这些发明活动对其盈利能力的影响知之甚少。本研究提出了一种基于发明的观点，该观点考虑了跨国公司的盈利能力如何受到他们跨组织边界（内部或合作）和地理边界（国家内部或国家之间）组织发明开发的方式的影响。这种观点假设盈利能力不仅受有利的技术禀赋驱动，还受这些技术资产的创造方式驱动。因此，它解释了为什么跨越两个边界的创造性活动的特定组合会以不同方式影响创造突破性发明的可能性，提供不同的收入和成本优势，并对跨国公司的盈利能力产生不同的影响。它进一步解释了为什么跨国发明在被内部化时对盈利的贡献更大，而国内发明在合作创造时更有利可图。