The evolution of intellectual property strategy in innovation ecosystems: Uncovering complementary and substitute appropriability regimes

By Marcus Holgersson, Ove Granstrand, Marcel Bogers. 2017

206 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this article, we attempt to extend and nuance the debate on intellectual property (IP) strategy, appropriation, and open innovation in dynamic and systemic innovation contexts. We present the case of four generations of mobile telecommunications systems (covering the period 1980-2015), and describe and analyze the co-evolution of strategic IP management and innovation ecosystems. Throughout this development, technologies and technological relationships were governed with different and shifting degrees of formality. Simultaneously, firms differentiated technology accessibility across actors and technologies to benefit from openness and appropriation of innovation. Our analysis shows that the discussion of competitiveness and appropriability needs to be expanded from the focal appropriability regime and complementary assets to the larger context of the innovation ecosystem and its cooperative and competitive actor relations, with dispersed complementary and substitute assets and technologies. Consequently, the shaping of complementary and substitute appropriability regimes is central when strategizing in dynamic and systemic innovation contexts. This holds important implications for the management of open innovation, innovation ecosystems, platforms, and coopetition.

Subfields: Management of Technology and Innovation, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/874af4f9157da2c326a7b2b581622309008105c3

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In Management of Technology and Innovation

1. Michele Grimaldi
2. L. Cricelli
3. Marco Greco

In Strategy and Management

1. Michele Grimaldi
2. L. Cricelli
3. Marco Greco

Citations in the corpus

• A framework of intellectual property protection strategies and open innovation (2021, background): “Furthermore, changes in a firm’s industry can drive the change in IP strategy (Holgersson et al., 2018).”
• Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition (2020, unknown): “…changes in form of an evolving pro-patent era also strongly influenced the innovation ecosystem from being largely unaffected to becoming increasingly patent licensing and litigation intensive, thus impacting the nature of collaboration and competition (Holgersson et al., 2018; Granstrand, 2018).”