Managing Intellectual Property in Inter-firm R&D Collaborations - The Case of the Service Industry Sector
Type
doctoral thesis
Date Issued
2006
Author(s)
Abstract
Executive Summary:
In highly industrialized countries, innovation and technologies account for about half of economic growth. Intellectual property management plays a crucial role in managing innovation by providing legal protection, especially when supporting fac-tual protection strategies that enable profits from temporary monopolies. Due to an increase in complexity, shortened innovation cycles as well as the higher risks and costs of generating innovation, companies are forced to focus on core competencies. Simultaneously, customers' demands for extensive solution concepts drive compa-nies to fill gaps by opening up their boundaries and collaborating with additional, external sources of innovation. Consequently, the results of collaborative innova-tion, which largely also includes intellectual property, have become a critical issue.
Legal protection strategies are a novelty in emerging business fields, such as the service industry sector, as innovation and value creation are shifting towards service innovations. The ways in which intellectual property can be managed in such an en-vironment is therefore the subject of this thesis.
An explorative, case-study-based research approach was chosen for the thesis due to the novelty of managing intellectual property in inter-firm research and develop-ment collaborations as an empirical phenomenon. By analyzing selected service in-novation companies, namely IBM, SAP, Swisscom and Swiss Re, a typology for managing intellectual property in research and development collaborations is com-piled, resulting in a Multiplicator, Leverager, Absorber and Filtrator type with re-spect to the collaboration focus dimension and the market size dimension.
Starting with the findings from the literature review, this thesis extracts core com-ponents to derive propositions. These theoretically derived propositions are tested in practice with respect to the case study outcomes to induce hypotheses. Finally, by analyzing the impact of the theoretical findings on the above-mentioned types, ty-pology-specific management implications are deduced and structured according to four views to form a hypotheses- and typology-based conceptual model for manag-ing intellectual property in research and development collaborations.
The thesis concludes with managerial success factors and an outlook on future chal-lenges.
In highly industrialized countries, innovation and technologies account for about half of economic growth. Intellectual property management plays a crucial role in managing innovation by providing legal protection, especially when supporting fac-tual protection strategies that enable profits from temporary monopolies. Due to an increase in complexity, shortened innovation cycles as well as the higher risks and costs of generating innovation, companies are forced to focus on core competencies. Simultaneously, customers' demands for extensive solution concepts drive compa-nies to fill gaps by opening up their boundaries and collaborating with additional, external sources of innovation. Consequently, the results of collaborative innova-tion, which largely also includes intellectual property, have become a critical issue.
Legal protection strategies are a novelty in emerging business fields, such as the service industry sector, as innovation and value creation are shifting towards service innovations. The ways in which intellectual property can be managed in such an en-vironment is therefore the subject of this thesis.
An explorative, case-study-based research approach was chosen for the thesis due to the novelty of managing intellectual property in inter-firm research and develop-ment collaborations as an empirical phenomenon. By analyzing selected service in-novation companies, namely IBM, SAP, Swisscom and Swiss Re, a typology for managing intellectual property in research and development collaborations is com-piled, resulting in a Multiplicator, Leverager, Absorber and Filtrator type with re-spect to the collaboration focus dimension and the market size dimension.
Starting with the findings from the literature review, this thesis extracts core com-ponents to derive propositions. These theoretically derived propositions are tested in practice with respect to the case study outcomes to induce hypotheses. Finally, by analyzing the impact of the theoretical findings on the above-mentioned types, ty-pology-specific management implications are deduced and structured according to four views to form a hypotheses- and typology-based conceptual model for manag-ing intellectual property in research and development collaborations.
The thesis concludes with managerial success factors and an outlook on future chal-lenges.
Language
English
Keywords
Intellectual Property Management
Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz
Patente
Patents
R&D Collaborations
R&D Cooperations
inter-firm
service sector
new economy
IBM
SAP
Swisscom
Swiss Re
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Publisher
Difo Druck
Publisher place
Bamberg
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
29466