Intellectual Property Management

The Role of Technology-Brands in the Appropriation of Technological Innovation

By: Klaus Jennewein

Write A Review

eText | 30 March 2006

At a Glance

Format
PDF

eText

$159.01

or 4 interest-free payments of $39.75 with

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Read online on

Desktop

Tablet

Mobile

Not downloadable to your eReader or an app

Why choose an eTextbook?

Instant Access *

Purchase and read your book immediately

Read Aloud

Listen and follow along as Bookshelf reads to you

Study Tools

Built-in study tools like highlights and more

* eTextbooks are not downloadable to your eReader or an app and can be accessed via web browsers only. You must be connected to the internet and have no technical issues with your device or browser that could prevent the eTextbook from operating.

Innovation is a source of competitive advantage. In other words, firms may leverage innovation to generate rents, at least temporarily. And this is intended to be a self-sustained business model: part of the rent extracted from the market may be re-invested into new technological developments which in turn permit additional innovations, thus regenerating the sources of rents. This is the positive loop of innovation. In this sense, business would be a permanent hunt for innovations, in search of rents. Yet, innovations need to be protected if firms want to benefit from rents over long periods of time. However, the strategic management literature tends to suggests that patents are a weak protection against aggressive imitators. Secrecy may help but we also know that technology ends up leaking in most cases. Speed in new developments to cut "time to market" may be another way of protecting the technological advance of the firm. But again, this may not be enough as start-ups may out-compete the established firm in the race for innovation. This is where Dr. Klaus Jennewein's key idea comes into the picture. The core of his thesis is that brand equity may be combined to technological protections such as patents to build a multi-layer, complex, intricate shield to protect the sources of rents against competitors and imitators.