How to Capture Value from Innovation: Shaping Intellectual Property and Industry Architecture

Gary P. Pisano; David J. Teece

Article | California Management Review

How to Capture Value from Innovation: Shaping Intellectual Property and Industry Architecture

by Gary P. Pisano and David J. Teece

Abstract

Capturing value from innovation requires innovators to figure out how to blunt inroads into the profit stream by imitators, customers, suppliers, and other providers of complementary products and services. In making strategic decisions around technology commercialization, managers often assume that the intellectual property environment and the architecture of the industry are beyond their control. This need not be so. Shows how managers can shape both the appropriability regime and the architecture of the industry in ways that can benefit the innovator by blunting the actions of others who may endeavor to tap into the stream of profits generated by innovation. Even small firms can play important roles. Tools include putting information into the public domain, helping to shape standards, and promoting modularity.

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Industry Structures; Standards; Commercialization; Value;

Format: Print

19 pages

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Citation:

Pisano, Gary P., and David J. Teece. "How to Capture Value from Innovation: Shaping Intellectual Property and Industry Architecture." Special Issue on Leading Through Innovation (50th Anniversary Issue). California Management Review 50, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 278–296.

Creative Construction tackles the myth that larger enterprises are inherently incapable of transformative innovation and are doomed to be disrupted by nimble start-ups. If larger enterprises seem incapable of transformative innovation, it is due to how we design and manage them, rather than anything inherent in their scale. In fact, Creative Construction argues, if used properly, scale can be an asset, rather than a liability, when it comes to innovation. However, to leverage the advantages of scale for innovation, companies need the right combination of strategy, systems, and culture. Based on more than three decades of the Pisano's research, teaching, and experience, Creative Construction offers a set of principles that will lead readers to rethink many long-held beliefs about innovation.

Innovative cultures are generally depicted as pretty fun. They’re characterized by a tolerance for failure and a willingness to experiment. They’re seen as being psychologically safe, highly collaborative, and nonhierarchical. And research suggests that these behaviors translate into better innovative performance. But despite the fact that innovative cultures are desirable, and that most leaders claim to understand what they entail, they are hard to create and sustain. That’s because the easy-to-like behaviors that get so much attention are only one side of the coin. They must be counterbalanced by some tougher and frankly less fun behaviors: an intolerance for incompetence, rigorous discipline, brutal candor, a high level of individual accountability, and strong leadership. Unless the tensions created by this paradox are carefully managed, attempts to create an innovative culture will fail.

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How to Capture Value from Innovation: Shaping Intellectual Property and Industry Architecture

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