Abstract:     It is of great significance for the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship that high-value patent-driven technology search promotes knowledge acquisition and technological innovation of international entrepreneurship. However, the existing research cannot solve the problem of international start-ups using technology search strategies to achieve high-quality development under the constraints of limited resources, and ignores the impact of institutional distance on them. Based on the recombinant search theory and institutional theory, this paper took China′s international start-ups with high-value patents as samples, selected their panel data from 2008 to 2022, and explored the impact of technology search breadth and depth on the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship, as well as the moderating role of formal institutional distance and informal institutional distance in it. The results showed that: (1) The breadth of technology search driven by high-value patents has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship, and the depth of technology search driven by high-value patents has a positive relationship with the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship; (2) The formal institutional distance plays a positive moderating role in the inverted U-shaped relationship between the breadth of technology search and the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship, that is, it strengthens its inverted U-shaped relationship, and positively moderates the positive relationship between the depth of technology search and the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship; (3) The informal institutional distance plays a positive moderating role in the inverted U-shaped relationship between the breadth of technology search and the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship, that is, it strengthens its inverted U-shaped relationship, and positively moderates the positive relationship between the depth of technology search and the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship. To a certain extent, the conclusions revised the internal logic between technology search, institutional distance and the high-quality development of international entrepreneurship, and expanded the perspective of high-value patents and international entrepreneurship research, and it had a certain enlightening effect on the realization of high-quality development of international entrepreneurship enterprises.

Key words: high-quality development of international entrepreneurship, technology search, institutional distance, high-value patent