Knowledge Protection Practices in Innovating SMEs

Thomä Jörg () and Zimmermann Volker ()
Additional contact information
Thomä Jörg: ifh Göttingen, Institute of small business economics at University of Göttingen, Heinrich Düker-Weg 6, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Zimmermann Volker: KfW Bankengruppe, Palmengartenstr. 5-9, 60325 Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 2013, vol. 233, issue 5-6, 691-717

Abstract: This paper examines the use of innovation protection mechanisms in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). By starting from a knowledge-based view the aim is to achieve a better understanding of how the role perceived by innovating SMEs of patent protection and the long-term retention of qualified personnel relates to different company-specific factors. Moreover, the interplay between patents and employee retention and their mutual interdependencies with other appropriation methods such as secrecy or lead time advantages are explored. This is because different knowledge protection practices must not only separately provide barriers to imitation, but may also reinforce each other as complements. In several ways, the results provide insights into some of the appropriation strategies taken by smaller firms. For example, a staff-related appropriation strategy seems to be essential for many SMEs because of their informal mode of learning and innovation characterized by experience-based know-how with strong tacit elements. A relatively strong complementary relationship has been observed between employee retention and the use of lead time advantages. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for policy and research.

Keywords: Appropriability; innovation protection mechanisms; patents; employee retention; SMEs; Appropriability; innovation protection mechanisms; patents; employee retention; SMEs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2013-5-609 (text/html)

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:jns:jbstat:v:233:y:2013:i:5-6:p:691-717

DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2013-5-609

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik) is currently edited by Peter Winker

More articles in Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik) from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().