Appropriability and the Retrieval of Knowledge after Spillovers
Alnuaimi, T., George, G. 2016. Appropriability and the retrieval of knowledge after spillovers, Strategic Management Journal, 2015 Forthcoming.
38 Pages Posted: 2 Mar 2015
Date Written: February 28, 2015
Abstract
Firms create and capture value through innovation. In technology-driven firms, there has been an explicit emphasis on appropriability through imitation deterrence and cumulative inventions that build on prior firm innovation. We introduce systematic empirical evidence for a third mechanism of appropriability namely, knowledge retrieval, which is defined as the re-absorption of previously spilled knowledge. We extend previous studies which consider technological complexity and organizational coupling as predictors of appropriability by examining their impact on knowledge retrieval. We find that technological complexity has a curvilinear relationship with retrieval while organizational coupling has a negative relationship. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of absorptive capacity, organizational design and appropriability of innovation.
Keywords: Appropriability, complexity, coupling, knowledge retrieval, patents
JEL Classification: L2, L24, O3, O30, O31, O32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation