Abstract: Transnational technology licensing is of great significance for developing countries to accelerate technological innovation and leverage their latecomer advantages to achieve economic catch-up. Transnational technology licensing may have an impact on domestic market competition and social welfare. Many Chinese industries are in a mixed oligopoly competition pattern, and the different business objectives of enterprises with different ownership types may affect the licensing decisions, thereby affecting the level of social welfare. Furthermore, will the mixed ownership reform currently being promoted in China change the licensing strategy of foreign technology holders? And what impact will it have on the effectiveness of technology dissemination and overall social welfare? So far, there is little literature that provides answers to the above questions.
Combining mixed ownership reform with technology licensing, this article constructs a mixed oligopoly model for a foreign technology holder who does not participate in market competition to engage in transnational technology licensing. It analyzes the optimal licensing objects and scope for the technology holder in both mixed monopoly and private monopoly markets, and compares the changes in the technology holder’s licensing strategies before and after mixed ownership reform. At the same time, by comparing the domestic welfare levels in two markets, this study explores whether mixed ownership reform is conducive to unleashing the domestic social welfare effects of transnational technology licensing.
Through analyzling the model, it is found that the optimal licensing range for the technology holder under any market structure depends on the cost gap between the public firm and the private firm, and degree of technological innovation. There is an uncertainty about whether the privatization of public enterprises can improve the level of social welfare in a country during transnational technology licensing. Only when there is a significant cost gap or degree of technological innovation, privatization is conducive to improving the social welfare brought by transnational technology licensing.
The research findings have certain practical implications for guiding the transnational technology licensing decisions of enterprises at the micro level, as well as for the formulation of technology introduction policies by the Chinese government and the promotion of mixed ownership reform at the macro level. Especially in combination of the current mixed ownership reform being promoted in China, this study shows that the reform does not necessarily bring about an improvement in the efficiency of innovative resource allocation. Therefore, the development of mixed ownership economy should comprehensively analyze the production technology environment of different industries and efficiency of enterprises, and prudently promote mixed ownership reform in order to promote the dissemination and application of advanced technology.
In the future research, this paper can be expanded from the following two aspects. The first is to introduce the parameter reflecting the degree of privatization of public enterprises, further analyzing the impact of different degrees of mixed ownership reforms on the domestic welfare effects of transnational technology licensing. The second is to relax the assumption that discriminatory technology licensing is not allowed in the country, and compare the possible impacts of mixed ownership reform on social welfare when implementing different competition policies in the field of intellectual property.

Key words: transnational technology licensing, mixed oligopoly, privatization, social welfare

摘要： 为探究混合所有制改革过程中公有企业民营化对技术创新传播及本国社会福利产生的影响,将跨国技术授权与混合所有制改革相结合,构建一个存在成本差异的本国公有企业与私有企业进行古诺竞争的混合寡占模型,通过比较混合寡头和私有寡头两种市场下外国非生产型技术持有者的最优授权范围,探讨了跨国技术授权时公有企业民营化对社会福利产生的影响。研究表明,无论哪种市场结构下技术持有者最优授权范围都取决于两类企业间的成本差距和技术创新程度;跨国技术授权时公有企业民营化能否提高本国社会福利水平具有不确定性,只有当成本差距或技术创新程度较大时,民营化才有利于提高跨国技术授权带来的社会福利。研究结论对于微观层面的企业选择跨国授权策略,以及宏观层面上国家完善技术进口政策与推动混合所有制改革具有重要实践启示。

关键词: 跨国技术授权, 混合寡头, 民营化, 社会福利