A framework of intellectual property protection strategies and open innovation

Adequate management of intellectual property (IP) is critical to sustaining competitive advantage and managing outbound open innovation (OI), which describes the inside-out flows of knowledge and technology. This article presents an IP strategic framework comprising the following strategies: a ‘defensive’ strategy, aimed at avoiding knowledge spillovers and building barriers to competition; a ‘collaborative’ strategy, aimed at collaborating with other organizations and entering new markets; and an ‘impromptu’ strategy, which describes firms protecting their IP without a clear purpose. We investigate the relationships of such IP strategies with outbound OI and innovation performance in 158 Italian firms. Most of them declared an impromptu IP strategy. We found that not having any IP protection strategy can be a barrier to outbound OI and that firms with a defensive IP strategy embraced outbound OI more than those declaring a collaborative IP strategy. Finally, firms with collaborative IP strategies outperformed those with defensive strategies.