Safeguarding intellectual property rights in emerging economies: The case of factual protection strategies in China
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2007-07-05
Author(s)
Abstract
Many emerging economies are characterised by a weak appropriability system and the ab-sence of a strong legal system that effectively punishes imitators. In such environments, for-eign firms' intellectual property rights are at risk, because the known methods of appropria-tion, such as patents or secrecy, are unlikely to work. This setting especially applies to China, the empirical context of our article.
Due to these adverse conditions, managers are facing the challenge to devise new strategies to safeguard the appropriation of their firms' intellectual property rights. However, besides the presumption that such strategies may exist, we do not know whether they do, and if so, which forms they take, how they evolved, and how they are implemented in the everyday conduct of business. While we know a lot about how to protect intellectual property rights in Western countries with strong appropriability regimes, we know next to nothing about how to achieve this protection in emerging economies with weak appropriability regimes.
It is the goal of our article to close this gap in our extant body of knowledge, and to explore the strategies that managers in China have developed to achieve 'factual' protection despite China's weak appropriability system. To do this, we systematically explore and analyse 13 cases of foreign firms that have wholly owned subsidiaries in China. Our findings document that such 'factual' strategies truly exist, how they work, and how they were achieved. From these findings, we derive implications for both managers and academics.
Due to these adverse conditions, managers are facing the challenge to devise new strategies to safeguard the appropriation of their firms' intellectual property rights. However, besides the presumption that such strategies may exist, we do not know whether they do, and if so, which forms they take, how they evolved, and how they are implemented in the everyday conduct of business. While we know a lot about how to protect intellectual property rights in Western countries with strong appropriability regimes, we know next to nothing about how to achieve this protection in emerging economies with weak appropriability regimes.
It is the goal of our article to close this gap in our extant body of knowledge, and to explore the strategies that managers in China have developed to achieve 'factual' protection despite China's weak appropriability system. To do this, we systematically explore and analyse 13 cases of foreign firms that have wholly owned subsidiaries in China. Our findings document that such 'factual' strategies truly exist, how they work, and how they were achieved. From these findings, we derive implications for both managers and academics.
Language
English
Keywords
Intellectual property rights
international management
patents
appropriability
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Book title
RADMA 2007 Proceedings
Event Title
R&D Management Conference (RADMA) 2007
Event Location
Bremen
Event Date
04-06.07.2007
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
36551