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Value creation approaches used in Open Innovation: an intellectual property view
Type
working paper
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
This paper aims to generate insights on how intellectual property in a crowdsourcing environment is managed and to suggest future fields of research as well as to provide a guideline for practitioners. A vast number of authors highlight the problem of confidentiality and IP protection in crowdsourcing (cf. Trompette, Chanal, and Pelissier, 2008; Avenali, Battistella, Matteucci, and Nonino, 2012; Botterbusch and Parker, 2008; Fantoni, Apreda, Valleri, Bonaccorsi, and Manenti, 2009; Feller, Finnegan, Hayes, and O’Reilly, 2012; Schenk and Guittard, 2009). Since, the varieties of stakeholders, tasks and mediation have different needs towards IP rights different approaches of how IP is handled are needed. The question how IP in crowdsourcing is actually managed by different web-based platforms remained unanswered by literature up to date. This paper is a first attempt to gain a better understanding on how intellectual property is approached by web-based platforms in different contexts. Because of the early stage of the research field a qualitative, inductive ‘case study’ approach was chosen. The data was gathered in a “one-shot design” (Jupp, 2006) during a period of six months using a mixed methods approach. The results highlight, that different approaches to capture IP and IP transfer models can be observed, not only across different crowdsourcing challenge types but also within one challenge type. Five generic intellectual property approaches were found and four IP transaction models identified: Connector, Escrow, Payment Processor and Standalone. The findings provide new theoretical insights by combining different areas of theory with empiricism and recommendations for managers. This study clarifies that there is no one-size fits all approach and sensitize practitioners for the role of IP in crowdsourcing activities. It indicates that each requester has to determine a suitable IP approach with regard to the challenge type and through what IP transfer model this can be put into action the best.
Language
English
Keywords
Crowdsourcing
Open Innovation
Intellectual Property
Value Appropriation
Pages
31
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
carol.krech@unisg.ch
Eprints ID
257229