A large proportion of the US workforce is covered by non-compete agreements (NCAs), but recently their use has become one of intense policy debate, with the FTC recently proposing to ban them. In this paper, we examine what effect such a policy change might be expected to have on innovation, and...

Why do some innovators freely reveal their intellectual property? This empirical puzzle has been a focal point of debate in the R&D literature. We show that innovators may share proprietary technology with rivals for free - even if it does not directly benefit them - to slow down competition. By...

Contrary to popular managerial discourse, the question of integrating innovation and sustainable development in business strategy is not new. At the beginning of the 1900s, when L'Oréal was created, people did not talk about environmental practices or about sustainable development. However,...

This study explores the effects of experiential learning on the cost of capability development. Drawing from historical data on patenting and licensing activities at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, we find evidence of a curvilinear relationship between experiential learning within a...

At least since Arrow (1962), economists have believed that strong property rights are necessary for firms to invest in innovation. This belief was a key principle underlying the Bayh-Dole Act, which gave universities the right to own and license federally funded inventions, because the...

We develop a dynamic model for digital service firms, which invest in monetization to generate revenues from services provided to customers for free. Our model captures and explains why such firms often build a large customer base and become highly valued while continuing to suffer...

There is considerable debate regarding the use of intellectual property rights (IPR) to spur innovation in the software industry. In this paper we focus on the choice of intellectual property right regimes and industry growth. We begin by developing a growth optimal mixture of open source and...

There is considerable debate regarding the use of intellectual property rights (IPR) to spur innovation in the software industry. In this paper we focus on the choice of intellectual property right regimes and industry growth. We begin by developing a growth optimal mixture of open source and...

Intangible knowledge capital (IKC) – technology produced by workers but not embodied in them – can offset the "middle income trap" as China exhausts the benefits of international technology transfer. IKC is productivity-enhancing among Chinese enterprises – more so in domestically owned...

In this paper we use cross-state panel data to show that top income inequality is (at least partly) driven by innovation. We first establish a positive and significant correlation between various measures of innovativeness and top income inequality in cross-state panel regressions. Two distinct...