Open innovation, contracts, and intellectual property rights: an exploratory empirical study
John Hagedoorn & Ann-Kristin Ridder
#2012-025
Our exploratory empirical study, based on a series of in-depth
interviews and a survey of firms, searches for answers on a number of
questions that deal with the role of formal contracts and intellectual
property rights in the context of open innovation. We find that firms
active in open innovation have a strong preference for the governance of
their open innovation relationships through formal contracts. These
contracts are relevant from both a control and a process monitoring
perspective. Also, despite the open nature of open innovation, firms
still see intellectual property rights as highly relevant to the
protection of their innovative capabilities. In a first attempt to
explain this preference for intellectual property rights by open
innovation firms, we find the degree of openness of firms, their
legalistic attitude, and the competitive dynamics of their product
market environment to be related to this preference.
JEL codes: K11, K12, L24
Keywords: open innovation, contracts, intellectual property rights