STR
TIM
Aldona Kapacinskaite
Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi U., Italy
Rohin N Vrajesh
Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi U., Italy
Colleen Cunningham
U. of Utah, David Eccles School of Business, United States
Carlos Serrano
HEC Paris, France
Sina Khoshsokhan
U. of Colorado, Boulder, United States
Aldona Kapacinskaite
Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi U., Italy
David Hsu
The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania, United States
Hong Luo
HBS, United States
This symposium explores topics at the intersection of secrecy and collaboration across firm boundaries. Firms manage their intellectual assets strategically, choosing between levels of secrecy and disclosure. Prior literature suggests that firms consider secrecy enables them to appropriate costly investments, but some disclosure is required to engage in markets for technology. While literature on external sourcing of inventions, in particular in the form of markets for technology, has grown over the past decades, evidence on how firms reconcile the widely reported preference for secrecy and collaboration across firm boundaries remains scant. In this symposium, we have assembled a set of three papers at the frontier of this literature and invited two top scholars in this area as the discussants. The symposium tackles questions such as: how do firms retain secrecy even while externally sourcing patented, disclosed inventions? Also, given that employees’ intra-firm patenting rates may respond to mobility constraints, how is collaborative patenting of IP affected when employees face more stringent mobility constraints? Finally, cross-firm collaboration is underpinned by information sharing and prior literature suggests firms relying on secrecy are forced to vertically integrate downstream. Then, can markets for trade secrets exist at all, and are they valuable? Presentations in this symposium will tackle these previously understudied questions, shedding light on the tensions and trade-offs in managing secrecy, disclosure, and external invention sourcing.
Author: George Chondrakis – ESADE Business School
Author: Carlos Javier Serrano – HEC Paris
Author: Rosemarie Ziedonis – Boston U.
Author: Thiago J. Soares – Insper
Author: Sina Khoshsokhan – U. of Colorado, Boulder
Author: Aldona Kapacinskaite – Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi U.
Author: Rohin N Vrajesh – Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi U.
Author: Colleen Cunningham – U. of Utah, David Eccles School of Business