WHAT’S SMALL SIZE GOT TO DO WITH IT? PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL ASSETS IN SMEs

Heidi Olander, Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen and Jukka Mähönen

Chapter 13 in Promoting Innovation in New Ventures and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2017, pp 309-331 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: The knowledge protection/sharing dilemma related to innovation activities is becoming known to all firms, even though it is generally more notable for SMEs: the small size of the firms inherently creates a need for inter-organizational collaboration, but it also makes dealing with the related contradictories more challenging. One factor behind this is that the needed tools — such as the protection mechanisms of intellectual assets — may be more limited. In line with this notion, we examine the protection available for and used by small firms in their innovation activities. We approach the issue by conducting a review on the relevant literature, and use a qualitative multiple case study conducted in eight small companies to empirically study the issue. Departing from prior research, we consider protection of innovations by distinguishing between the intangibles needed in innovation activities and the actual innovation outputs, and combine these considerations to the knowledge protection/sharing dilemma.

Keywords: Innovation; Enterprise; SMEs; Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises; SMBs; Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9781786343482_0013 (application/pdf)
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9781786343482_0013 (text/html)
Ebook Access is available upon purchase.

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:wsi:wschap:9781786343482_0013

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in World Scientific Book Chapters from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().