Opening Up Intellectual Property Strategy: Implications for Open Source Software Entry by Start-up Firms

Wen Wen (), Marco Ceccagnoli () and Chris Forman ()
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Wen Wen: McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Marco Ceccagnoli: Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Chris Forman: Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308

Management Science, 2016, vol. 62, issue 9, 2668-2691

Abstract: We examine whether a firm’s intellectual property (IP) strategy in support of the open source software (OSS) community stimulates new OSS product entry by start-up software firms. In particular, we analyze the impact of strategic decisions taken by IBM around the mid-2000s, such as its announcement that it will not assert its patents against the OSS community and its creation of a patent commons. These decisions formed a coherent IP strategy in support of OSS. We find that IBM’s actions stimulated new OSS product introductions by entrepreneurial firms and that their impact is increasing in the cumulativeness of innovation in the market and the extent to which patent ownership in the market is concentrated.Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2247 . This paper was accepted by Lee Fleming, entrepreneurship and innovation .

Keywords: IP strategy; open source software (OSS); OSS entry; patent commons; patent thicket; cumulative innovation; concentrated patent ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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