How Intellectual Property Management Capability and Network Strategy Affect Open Technological Innovation in the Korean New Information Communications Technology Industry

So Kim,Eungdo Kim

doi:10.3390/su10082600

Abstract

This paper analyses factors in open innovation activity in the Korean new information and communications technology (ICT) industry, with a focus on cooperation network strategy and intellectual property (IP) management capability, by applying multiple regression models with data collected from 300 companies within the industry. The results of this analysis suggested that the intensity and variation of a company’s technological cooperation with a new ICT company has a statistically meaningful impact on its innovation. In particular, the impact depended on the type of cooperation network. Though IP management capability was also shown to have an important influence on a new ICT company’s innovation, the impact of specific actions for IP management varied by the specific type of innovation results. This study suggests that new ICT companies need to construct technological innovation networks using multiple external sources and enhance their IP management capability in order to increase their technological innovation performance. The factors influencing technological innovation are elements of open innovation, indicating the open technological innovativeness of the new ICT Industry.

Highlights

The open innovation paradigm offers a company the chance to profit extensively through innovation activities and the intellectual property (IP) management resulting from them
When examining the dependent variable New Product Innovation, TOTALNET, TOTAL_IP and R&D shows a positive effect on Technological Innovation performance, while SIZE, AGE and HHI were statistically insignificant, validating Hypotheses 1, 2 and 5 and invalidating Hypotheses 3, 4 and 6
When network and IP management was further divided into four elements, we found that FIRMNET and USERNET in network variable and IP_EXP and IP_EDU had a proportional relationship with New Product Innovation, validating Hypotheses 2b, 2c, 1a and 1d while the other variables had no statistically meaningful relationship, invalidating Hypotheses 2a, 2d, 1b and 1c

Summary

Introduction

The open innovation paradigm offers a company the chance to profit extensively through innovation activities and the intellectual property (IP) management resulting from them. As characteristics of the new ICT industry such as easy diffusion of innovation outcomes, the necessity of external technology absorption and the strong influence of user innovation require reinforcing company’s network strategy and varying detailed actions according to the place of opponent players in the ecosystem [8,9]. In terms of inbound open innovation, IP management is important due to efficient processes for introducing external knowledge. In terms of outbound open innovation, IP management is necessary to monetize intellectual properties and to launch spin-off business

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Conclusion