Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Zobel, Ann-Kristin
Author-Email: azobel@ethz.ch 
Author-workplace-name: Dept. of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zürich
Author-Name: Lokshin, Boris
Author-Email: b.lokshin@maastrichtuniversity.nl	
Author-workplace-name: School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Hagedoorn, John
Author-Email: hagedoorn@merit.unu.edu	
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT, and Royal Holloway University of London
Title: Formal and informal appropriation mechanisms: the role of openness and 
	 innovativeness 
Abstract: This paper analyses how firms' degree of openness and innovativeness 
	 influence their use of formal and informal appropriation mechanisms. 
	 Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and design rights are formal 
	 appropriation mechanisms. Secrecy, lead-time, and complexity are 
	 examples of informal appropriation mechanisms. Both external search 
	 breadth and depth are positively associated with firms' use of informal 
	 appropriation mechanisms, while only external search breadth is 
	 positively associated with formal appropriation mechanisms. Firms' 
	 degree of radical (incremental) innovation orientation is negatively 
	 (positively) associated with their use of formal appropriation 
	 mechanisms. Analysis of the joint impact of openness and innovativeness, 
	 suggests that for radical innovators it is external search breadth 
	 (rather than depth) that has a positive association with the use of 
	 informal appropriation mechanisms. In contrast, for radical innovators 
	 external search depth (rather than breadth) is associated with the use 
	 of formal appropriation mechanisms. For incremental innovators, external 
	 search breadth (rather than depth) is associated with the use of both 
	 formal and informal appropriation mechanisms.
Keywords: Appropriation Mechanisms, Formal Appropriation, Informal Appropriation,
	 External Search Openness, Incremental Innovators, Radical Innovators
Classification-JEL: O34, O31, O32, K11
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20161026
Number: 2016-059
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2016/wp2016-059.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2016059