To patent or not to patent: That is the question. Intellectual property protection in family firms

Francesco Chirico, Giuseppe Criaco, Massimo Baù, Lucia Naldi, Luis R. Gomez-Mejia and Josip Kotlar

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2020, vol. 44, issue 2, 339-367

Abstract: This study examines family firms’ propensity to protect their intellectual property through patents. Building on the mixed gamble logic of the behavioral agency model, we theorize that family ownership has a U-shaped relationship with firm propensity to patent. Specifically, we argue that family firms’ desire to prevent losses of current socioemotional wealth (SEW) inhibits their propensity to patent until a threshold level of family ownership, beyond which the family’s SEW is secured and a greater focus on prospective financial gains attainable through patents is possible. We also suggest that environmental munificence moderates this nonlinear relationship such that a low-munificent environment accentuates the potentially detrimental (beneficial) effects of low-to-medium (medium-to-high) levels of family ownership on patents. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 4,198 small- and medium-sized family firms.

Keywords: intellectual property protection; patent; innovation; environmental munificence; family firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:44:y:2020:i:2:p:339-367

DOI: 10.1177/1042258718806251

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