We study how the physical effects of climate change motivate entrepreneurs to develop and protect climate change adaptation (CCA) intellectual property (IP) in heterogeneous ways across countries. Integrating the sustainable entrepreneurship literature with the attention-based view, we show that country-level climate impact redirects managerial attention to the disruptive potential of climate change and spurs the sector into action to pursue and protect CCA-related IP. We also find that strong intellectual-property rights regulations and environmental movements in countries strengthen this effect. Our results extend the sustainable entrepreneurship literature by showing how the geography of climate impact explains how CCA IP protection efforts are distributed globally.

Executive summary

Why do entrepreneurs in some countries engage in more climate change adaptation (CCA) intellectual property (IP) protection than others? We postulate that entrepreneurs' attention is simultaneously situated in their country's climatic and institutional environments, and that these contexts shape the salience of CCA IP protection. Formally, we predict that entrepreneurs who would normally deprioritize CCA IP protection as an opportunity in the face of more urgent socioeconomic issues become more attuned to it as their country's climate impact increases. We then theorize institutional conditions that influence entrepreneurs' responsiveness to climate impact. First, we predict that stronger intellectual property rights institutions reduce entrepreneurs' uncertainty in capturing rents from their CCA IP and hence strengthen the relationship between climate impact and CCA IP protection. Second, we predict that informal institutions aligned with environmental movements increase the salience of climate impacts to corporate entrepreneurs by spurring their interests in environmental issues and hence also strengthen the climate impact-CCA IP protection relationship. Our empirical analyses using 689 country-year observations consisting of 95 countries over the period 2005 to 2015 reveal that country-level climate impact drives CCA IP protection, especially when there are strong intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes and environmental movements.

中文翻译：

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气候影响、制度背景和国家气候变化适应知识产权保护率

我们研究气候变化的物理影响如何激励企业家以不同的方式在各国开发和保护气候变化适应（CCA）知识产权（IP）。将可持续创业文献与基于注意力的观点相结合，我们表明，国家层面的气候影响将管理层的注意力转向气候变化的破坏性潜力，并刺激该部门采取行动，追求和保护与 CCA 相关的知识产权。我们还发现，各国强有力的知识产权法规和环保运动强化了这种效应。我们的研究结果通过展示气候影响的地理如何解释 CCA 知识产权保护工作如何在全球范围内分布，扩展了可持续创业文献。

执行摘要

为什么一些国家的企业家比其他国家的企业家更多地参与气候变化适应（CCA）知识产权（IP）保护？我们假设企业家的注意力同时集中在其国家的气候和制度环境上，并且这些环境塑造了CCA知识产权保护的显着性。从形式上看，我们预测，在面对更紧迫的社会经济问题时，通常不会将 CCA 知识产权保护视为一个机会的企业家，随着本国气候影响的增加，他们会变得更加适应它。然后，我们对影响企业家对气候影响的反应的制度条件进行理论分析。首先，我们预测，更强大的知识产权制度会减少企业家从 CCA 知识产权中获取租金的不确定性，从而加强气候影响与 CCA 知识产权保护之间的关系。其次，我们预测，与环境运动相一致的非正式制度会激发企业企业家对环境问题的兴趣，从而增强企业企业家对气候影响的重视，从而加强气候影响与 CCA 知识产权保护的关系。我们使用 2005 年至 2015 年间 95 个国家的 689 个国家年观测数据进行实证分析，结果表明，国家层面的气候影响推动了 CCA 知识产权保护，特别是在存在强大的知识产权 (IPR) 制度和环境运动的情况下。