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Concealing or revealing? Alternative paths to profiting from innovation

Brattström, Anna LU and Hallberg, Niklas Lars LU (2016) Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016
Abstract
One stream of research states that closed innovation and knowledge concealing is imperative for firms seeking to profit from innovation. Another stream of research states that firms can enhance innovation outcomes by means of openness and the selective revealing of knowledge. To contrast these two streams of research, we offer a comparative analysis of under what conditions firms should conceal or reveal knowledge in order to profit from innovation. We ague that firms profit from concealing and revealing knowledge depending on the presence of industry-level network effects and imitation risk as well as firm-specific factors such as their position within the network of firms, their knowledge-base, and the ability to prevent imitation... (More)
One stream of research states that closed innovation and knowledge concealing is imperative for firms seeking to profit from innovation. Another stream of research states that firms can enhance innovation outcomes by means of openness and the selective revealing of knowledge. To contrast these two streams of research, we offer a comparative analysis of under what conditions firms should conceal or reveal knowledge in order to profit from innovation. We ague that firms profit from concealing and revealing knowledge depending on the presence of industry-level network effects and imitation risk as well as firm-specific factors such as their position within the network of firms, their knowledge-base, and the ability to prevent imitation through complementary assets and patents. The novelty of our framework consists of addressing the effect on firm profits as opposed to the effect on innovation outcomes. Further, we build a multi-level model of relevant conditions in term of both industry- and firm level factors, taking into account how the potentially countervailing effects of value creation and appropriation unfold over time. This allows us to separate the different economic mechanisms by which particular conditions affect the financial impact of revealing or concealing knowledge. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Open Innovation, Strategic management, secrecy
conference name
Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016
conference location
Anaheim, United States
conference dates
2016-08-05 - 2016-08-09
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e5865a34-fd0a-471c-b00b-23fe6bd76f2e
date added to LUP
2016-08-15 12:49:38
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:25:11
@misc{e5865a34-fd0a-471c-b00b-23fe6bd76f2e,
  abstract     = {{One stream of research states that closed innovation and knowledge concealing is imperative for firms seeking to profit from innovation. Another stream of research states that firms can enhance innovation outcomes by means of openness and the selective revealing of knowledge. To contrast these two streams of research, we offer a comparative analysis of under what conditions firms should conceal or reveal knowledge in order to profit from innovation. We ague that firms profit from concealing and revealing knowledge depending on the presence of industry-level network effects and imitation risk as well as firm-specific factors such as their position within the network of firms, their knowledge-base, and the ability to prevent imitation through complementary assets and patents. The novelty of our framework consists of addressing the effect on firm profits as opposed to the effect on innovation outcomes. Further, we build a multi-level model of relevant conditions in term of both industry- and firm level factors, taking into account how the potentially countervailing effects of value creation and appropriation unfold over time. This allows us to separate the different economic mechanisms by which particular conditions affect the financial impact of revealing or concealing knowledge.}},
  author       = {{Brattström, Anna and Hallberg, Niklas Lars}},
  keywords     = {{Open Innovation; Strategic management; secrecy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  title        = {{Concealing or revealing? Alternative paths to profiting from innovation}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}