The Effect of Business Characteristics on the Methods of Knowledge Protections

Xu Bin and Tan Kay Chuan
Additional contact information
Xu Bin: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Tan Kay Chuan: National University of Singapore, Singapore

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD), 2011, vol. 2, issue 3, 34-60

Abstract: Intellectual property (IP) protection has been suggested to be essential in protecting innovation in product-dominant companies. However, with the development of service industries, the ineffectiveness in IP protection becomes manifest. Meanwhile, other knowledge protecting methods enable companies to maintain their competency without formal protection. This study examines the effectiveness of different means of knowledge protection. Specifically, business is classified according to companies’ offering nature, serving mode and consider about their business hardware. The effectiveness of protection methods is analyzed among these business types. Interviews were conducted with senior managers of 39 companies in China and Singapore. It is demonstrated that the choice of knowledge protecting method does not depend mainly on whether a company provides products or services, but on how the company produces and provides its offerings. It is found that the core competency of companies largely affects their attitude on whether to protect their offerings. It is found that in weak appropriability regimes, companies apply for patents not for their knowledge protection function, but for other benefits, such as getting awards or tax reductions, and improving reputation among customers.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 018/jsesd.2011070103 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jsesd0:v:2:y:2011:i:3:p:34-60

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD) is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().