MISSION: POSSIBLE BUT SENSITIVE — KNOWLEDGE PROTECTION MECHANISMS SERVING DIFFERENT PURPOSES

Heidi Olander (), Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen () and Mika Vanhala ()
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Heidi Olander: Lappeenranta University of Technology, School of Business, P.O. Box 20, FIN-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland
Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen: Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, FIN-90014 Oulu, Finland
Mika Vanhala: Lappeenranta University of Technology, School of Business, P.O. Box 20, FIN-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2014, vol. 18, issue 06, 1-24

Abstract: Innovations have the potential to create value by generating rents (primary appropriability), or they can be used as background knowledge for further innovations and value creation (generative appropriability). Because these possibilities exist, organisations need to make strategic decisions on knowledge sharing with their partners in collaborative innovation. In best cases, primary and generative appropriability are complementarities rather than alternatives: Knowledge sharing with partners for new innovation could be made safer using formal and informal isolating appropriability mechanisms that improve controllability, thereby preserving rent generation possibilities and simultaneously allowing safe knowledge exchange. We use a quantitative sample of 209 Finnish firms to examine how different formal and informal appropriability mechanisms relate to value capture and creation, and whether these relationships are affected by the strategic goal to reduce imitation of competitors or to improve safe knowledge sharing to partners.

Keywords: Informal protection; formal protection; value creation; value capture; appropriability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1142/S136391961440012X

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