We’re leaking, and everything's fine: How and why companies deliberately leak secrets

David R. Hannah, Ian P. McCarthy and Jan Kietzmann

Business Horizons, 2015, vol. 58, issue 6, 659-667

Abstract: Although the protection of secrets is often vital to the survival of organizations, at other times organizations can benefit by deliberately leaking secrets to outsiders. We explore how and why this is the case. We identify two dimensions of leaks: (1) whether the information in the leak is factual or concocted and (2) whether leaks are conducted overtly or covertly. Using these two dimensions, we identify four types of leaks: informing, dissembling, misdirecting, and provoking. We also provide a framework to help managers decide whether or not they should leak secrets.

Keywords: Secrecy; Trade secrets; Deliberately leaking secrets; Knowledge management; Intellectual property (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:6:p:659-667

DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2015.07.003

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