Intellectual property and SMEs … What's the state of play?

Abstract

This paper investigates how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can leverage intellectual property (IP) use to enhance their innovation performance. The existing literature on IP use is typically focused on large established corporations, or discrete strategy issues related to specific topics such as patent management and lacks a comprehensive overview of IP strategy challenges for SMEs. Our study addresses this gap in the literature by conducting a systematic literature review addressing the dynamics, requirements and benefits to SMEs of the strategic accumulation, maintenance and exploitation of IP rights. Our findings indicate that SMEs may improve their innovation performance, their overall business performance and their competitive positioning by treating the management of IP as a basic business function alongside orthodox management functions such as finance, marketing, operations, and R&D. This paper makes three key contributions. First, it deepens our understanding of how the use of IP affects business functions within SMEs. Second, it advances the strategy literature by highlighting IP as an impactful if not yet widely appreciated strategic domain for managers of SMEs. Third, it connects the innovation and technology management literature, in the organizational context of SMEs, with the intellectual property literature.