A classic decision faced by technology suppliers and buyers is whether to compete in the product markets or cooperate through licensing. We address this question by examining an important, demand-side barrier to licensing -- the buyers’ cost of integrating a licensed technology. We argue that...

I develop and test a model of strategic R&D investments where innovating and non-innovating firms compete on the basis of their ability to reduce costs and imitate rivals. I find that a larger proportion of non-innovating rivals stimulates cost-reducing investments and attenuates the...

It has been argued that platform technology owners co-create business value with other firms in their platform ecosystems by encouraging complementary invention and exploiting indirect network effects. In this study we examine whether participation in an ecosystem partnership improves the...

The impact of strategies used to appropriate innovation rents on firm performance is analyzed using a sample of U.S. public manufacturing firms. Stronger appropriability at the firm level, achieved through patent protection or the ownership of specialized complementary assets, leads to superior...

This paper analyzes the relationship between technology licensing and the effectiveness of patent protection. Using the 1994 Carnegie Mellon survey on industrial R&D in the United States, we develop and test a simple structural model in which the patenting and licensing decisions are jointly...

I develop and test a model of strategic R&D investments where innovating and non-innovating firms compete on the basis of their ability to reduce costs and imitate rivals. I find that a larger proportion of non-innovating rivals stimulates cost-reducing investments and attenuates the...

In this study we examine the antecedents of small independent software vendor (ISV) decisions to join a platform ecosystem. Using data on the history of partnering activities from 1201 ISVs from 1996 to 2004, we find that appropriability strategies based on intellectual property rights and the...

We examine whether ownership of intellectual property rights (IPR) or downstream capabilities is effective in encouraging entry into markets complementary to a proprietary platform by preventing the platform owner from expropriating rents from start-ups. We study this question in the context of...