{"title":"Intellectual property rights and control in the digital economy: Examining the expansion of M-Pesa","authors":"Christopher Foster","doi":"10.1080/01972243.2023.2259895","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The importance of intellectual capital in the digital economy implies an increasingly central role of intellectual property rights (IPR). However, there are concerns that the expansion of intellectual property rights concentrates profits from innovation, creating “intellectual monopolies”. This is particularly concerning with respect to strong global regimes of intellectual property that foster economic inequities between the Global South and North. Such arguments imply that IPR is a core driver of structural inequality in the digital economy, yet there is very little empirical analysis of how such conceptual ideas unfold. This study focuses on IPR in the Kenyan mobile money service M-Pesa. It charts how M-Pesa expanded from a development-orientated innovation in Kenya to become part of a global enterprise. Control of IPR has led to bottlenecks in innovation in Kenya and significant South-to-North financial transfers. Overall, this case contributes to expanding the debate about patterns of innovation and governance of the digital economy. As digital firms expand, unpacking the processes by which global intellectual property regimes and cross-border IPR practices shape uneven power relations and inequality is vital.","PeriodicalId":51481,"journal":{"name":"Information Society","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2023.2259895","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The importance of intellectual capital in the digital economy implies an increasingly central role of intellectual property rights (IPR). However, there are concerns that the expansion of intellectual property rights concentrates profits from innovation, creating “intellectual monopolies”. This is particularly concerning with respect to strong global regimes of intellectual property that foster economic inequities between the Global South and North. Such arguments imply that IPR is a core driver of structural inequality in the digital economy, yet there is very little empirical analysis of how such conceptual ideas unfold. This study focuses on IPR in the Kenyan mobile money service M-Pesa. It charts how M-Pesa expanded from a development-orientated innovation in Kenya to become part of a global enterprise. Control of IPR has led to bottlenecks in innovation in Kenya and significant South-to-North financial transfers. Overall, this case contributes to expanding the debate about patterns of innovation and governance of the digital economy. As digital firms expand, unpacking the processes by which global intellectual property regimes and cross-border IPR practices shape uneven power relations and inequality is vital.
期刊介绍:
The Information Society is a multidisciplinary journal intended to answer questions about the Information Age. It provides a forum for thoughtful commentary and discussion of significant topics in the world of information, such as transborder data flow, regulatory issues, the impact of the information industry, information as a determinant of public and private organizational performance, and information and the sovereignty of the public and private organizational performance, and information and the sovereignty of the public. Its papers analyze information policy issues affecting society. Because of the journal"s international perspective, it will have worldwide appeal to scientists and policymakers in government, education, and industry.