The reverse tragedy of the commons: an exploratory account of incentives for under-exploitation in an open innovation environment*

This paper presents an empirical account of a phenomenon that we refer to as the ‘reverse tragedy of the commons’ in open innovation. The name signifies the ‘under-exploitation’ of intellectual property (IP) under weak appropriability. The name is this graphic because the tragedy is costly, and can also render IP effectively worthless and block innovation in the short to medium term. We propose that the tragedy is borne out of the interaction between enterprise characteristics, a competitive setting and the framework that is set by the policy intervention. This finding is pertinent to policy-makers with regard to the design of research, development and innovation instruments, as well as managers who must determine how to implement open practices in innovation.     

Firm Density and Industry R & D Intensity: Theory and Evidence

By deriving a formal model of industry R & D that identifies factors influencing industry R & D intensity, this paper first suggests firm density, defined as the inverse of average firm sales or simply the number of firms divided by industry sales, as a measure of market structure that is appropriate in explaining industry R & D intensity. The model shows that the cost structure of R & D, consumer preference over quality and price, the appropriability of R & D, firm density, and the average level of firm R & D intensity jointly determine industry R & D intensity. In particular, firm density has a positive relationship with industry R & D intensity, implying that firms in higher firm-density industries feel fiercer competitive pressure and thus engage more intensively in R & D. An empirical analysis of panel data on industry R & D activities of Korean manufacturing industries during the period 1991–1996 provides supportive evidence for the predictions of the model including the positive relationship between firm density and industry R & D intensity. The theoretical model and the empirical results are also consistent with the recent survey of U.S. corporate R & D activities by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation (1999).     

Appropriability,services and reputation

The appropriability regime (Teece 1986) that innovating service firms face is generally weaker than what firms in manufacturing sectors face. An important means to appropriate benefits from innovation that service firms can use is their reputation. This conceptual paper offers insights into how a firm’s reputation helps in appropriating value from innovation. Depending on the nature of a service, different kinds of third parties come into play in establishing reputation. In helping firms establish a reputation, such third parties influence customer decisions to acquire a service. While ‘to produce a service is to organise a solution to a problem’, and thus does not involve a third party, is true for pure services in particular, for a service firm to benefit from innovation such others are involved.     

Resource Curse or Not: A Question of Appropriability*

Whether natural resources are good or bad for a country's development are shown to depend on the interaction between institutional setting and, crucially, the types of resources possessed by the country. Some natural resources are, for economical and technical reasons, more likely to cause problems such as rent‐seeking and conflicts than others. This potential problem can, however, be countered by good institutional quality. In contrast to the traditional resource curse hypothesis, we show the impact of natural resources on economic growth to be non‐monotonic in institutional quality, and increasingly so for certain types of resources. In particular, countries rich in minerals are cursed only if they have low‐quality institutions, while the curse is reversed if institutions are sufficiently good. Furthermore, if countries are rich in diamonds and precious metals, these effects—both positive and negative—are larger.     

The Skill Premium, Technological Change and Appropriability

This paper demonstrates that an increase in the relative supply of educated workers generates a structural change in the production structure towards a knowledge-intensive production process. This structural shift may ultimately lead to an increase in the return to educated labor despite the increase in their supply. The paper argues that the steady increase in the supply of educated workers that most Western economies have experienced in recent decades may be viewed as the driving force behind the observed pattern of wage inequality. In particular, the paper demonstrates that if firms can appropriate a sufficient share of the intertemporal return from knowledge generating activities of their labor force, a gradual increase in the supply of skilled workers would generate only a temporary reduction in the skill premium followed by a permanent increase in the return to skill.     

企业独占性与其市场议价能力间关系的实证研究——以浙江省工业企业为例

通过对浙江省工业企业的调查问卷进行统计分析,讨论了企业独占性的三种表现形式——市场独占性、品牌独占性和技术独占性。采用理论分析与实证分析相结合的研究方法,对不同独占性下企业的议价能力进行研究。结果表明:企业独占性对其议价能力有显著的正向影响,提高独占性是提升企业议价能力的有力手段,其中市场独占性对企业议价能力的影响最大,其次是品牌独占性和技术独占性。     

Appropriability mechanisms,innovation, and productivity: evidence from the UK

ABSTRACT

We use an extended version of the well-established Crepon, Duguet, and Mairesse model [1998. “Research, Innovation and Productivity: An Econometric Analysis at the Firm Level.” Economics of Innovation and New Technology 7 (2): 115–158] to model the relationship between appropriability mechanisms, innovation, and firm-level productivity. We enrich this model in three ways: (1) We compare estimates obtained using a broader definition of innovation spending to those that use R&D spending. (2) We assume that a firm simultaneously innovates and chooses among different appropriability methods to protect the innovation. (3) We estimate the impact of innovation output on firm productivity conditional on the choice of appropriability mechanism. We find that firms that innovate and rate formal methods for the protection of intellectual property highly are more productive than other firms, but that the same does not hold in the case of informal methods of protection, except possibly for large firms as opposed to SMEs. We also find that this result is strongest for firms in the services, trade, and utility sectors, and negative in the manufacturing sector.     

企业R&D投资行为及其价值创造机制研究——基于中国上市公司的实证检验

文章通过构建由技术（T）、组织（O）、和环境（E）组成的TOE框架,并研究了该框架下R&D投资行为及其价值创造的具体机制。以上市公司为例,文章发现TOE框架为解释企业R&D投资行为提供了很好的理论支持。技术因素（T）是管理层作出R&D投资决策的基础;组织因素（O）是企业R&D投资决策的内在动力;而环境因素（E）是转型经济中影响企业R&D投资决策的外在动力,其中以组织因素对企业R&D投资决策的影响最大。文章还进一步探讨了R&D投入后价值创造的作用机制,并提出了价值创造的冰山模型且进行了实证检验。研究结果证明了R&D创造价值的过程同时受企业的技术专属性与互补性资产的影响,从而为Teece（1986）有关资源观在R&D价值创造中的相关理论提供了强有力的实证依据。     

Appropriability,preemption, and firm performance

The impact of strategies used to appropriate innovation rents on firm performance is analyzed using a sample of U.S. public manufacturing firms. Stronger appropriability at the firm level, achieved through patent protection or the ownership of specialized complementary assets, leads to superior economic performance, as measured by the stock market valuation of a firm's R& D assets. Among commonly used ‘nonconventional’ patent strategies, preemptive patenting allows incumbents to strengthen their market power. Consistent with theory, such effect is higher for incumbents with higher ex ante market power and facing a higher threat of entry, and lower when R& D competition is characterized by the discovery of drastic innovations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formation of R&D consortia: industry and company effects

This study investigates economic and strategic inducements of R&D cooperation. We focus on industry and company factors that affect a firm's rate of participation in R&D consortia. These factors are analyzed in a dynamic context using a sample of 312 Japanese firms in 74 industries between 1969 and 1992. We find a firm in an industry with weak competition and appropriability conditions has a higher rate of consortia participation. A firm's R&D capabilities, network formation through past consortia, encounter with other firms in product markets, age, and past participation in large‐scale consortia also positively affect its tendency of consortia formation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.