Alternative Methods in Protecting Innovation - A Literature Review

Abstract

This working paper reviews 19 technology and innovation management articles from the past ten years (2003-2012) based on the Thongpapanl’s overall adjusted ranking list of Top 50 innovation management journals (between years 2006 and 2010) with focus on alternative methods of protecting innovations (i.e. excluding formal intellectual property rights). Appropriability is a multi-dimensional concept, which concerns the appropriation of value through the protection of company technologies and innovations, influenced by the external environment as well as by the internal characteristics and the strategic choices the company takes in choosing between the available protection mechanisms in protecting certain kind of knowledge to create value and profit from it.