Firms that develop user innovations for their own use often find these innovations attractive to their competitors. Thus, the user innovator may consider vertical diversification, turning to manufacturing and selling its own innovation while keeping its original business as a user. The question...

This study sheds new light on first- and early-mover advantages in the context of product innovation. Research on this classic topic often assumes that each firm participates in the entirety of the innovation and commercialization process. However, a division of labor between innovative new...

One of the most neglected aspects of strategic patenting behavior is the timing of the pre-examination phase. While an expeditious grant is often desirable, applicants may also benefit from a prolonged period of pre-examination pendency to create uncertainty or to otherwise improve their...

We propose a unifying framework for the role of visible product design as a driver of interfirm competition, covering aspects of both value creation and value capture. We introduce the concept of “relative” product differentiation and theorize how design choices, by affecting consumer...

Digital designs – that is, designs for display on electronic screens – have recently burst onto the intellectual property stage. While in the U.S. a smattering of legal studies have recently addressed the question of digital design as a copyright-, trademark- and patent-eligible subject...

The existing theory of modularity explains how modular designs create value. We extend this theory to address value appropriation. A product or process design that is modular with respect to intellectual property (IP) allows firms to better capture value in situations where knowledge and value...

The concept of risk is central to strategy research and practice. Yet, the expected positive association between risk and return, familiar from financial markets, is elusive. Measuring risk as the variance of a series of accounting-based returns, Bowman obtained the puzzling result of a negative...

The Internet of Things (IoT) relies heavily on wireless communication technologies, which are covered by thousands of standard-essential patents (SEPs). Numerous applications of IoT technologies are being developed, frequently coming from entrepreneurial firms. The high degree of fragmentation...