Introduction to the Special Issue on Intellectual Property Management: an internal and external perspective

Introduction to the special issue on intellectual property management: an internal and external perspective Introduction In the knowledge economy, intellectual property (IP) assets have been recognized as a main source of competitive advantage. This is proved by the increasing trend toward patent application and trademark registration on the part not only of large companies but also of SMEs (e.g. Hollanders and Es-Skadi, 2013; Hanel, 2006). However, even though firms devote many efforts in developing IP and protecting them from imitators, they are not equally capable of capitalizing on and extract value from them (e.g. Agostini et al., 2016). To tackle this deficiency, during the last few years, research on IP has departed from the traditional economic and legal perspective in favor of a more strategic and managerial approach, based on the indication that IP decisions often have serious consequences for a firm’s business that reach far beyond the legal aspects of an IP-related dispute (Di Minin and Faems, 2013). The mere accumulation of IP assets does not grant any value appropriation from innovation or any return on investment; to this purpose, IP management not only becomes a critical challenge for firms, but also a practice they cannot disregard if they want to reap the benefits of their IP (Bader et al., 2012). IP management integrates two areas: the first concerns internal management of intellectual property rights (IPRs), whereas the second concerns external management of IPRs (Pitkethly, 2001). This distinction follows the increasing tendency of firms toward opening their boundaries to complement internal with external knowledge, considered that new knowledge is at the basis of IP asset development. Appropriating the value of such knowledge sources requires a strategic approach toward IP management, which encompasses both a firm’s internal management of IPRs aimed at “managing the creation and preservation of the company’s IP resources”, as well as the external management of IPRs, which concerns how a firm acquires knowledge and IPRs from others firms and vice versa (Pitkethly, 2001). Therefore, the aim of this special issue is to shed more light on these two levels of analysis (i.e. internal and external) to enrich our understanding of different facets of IP management and provide managers with remarkable suggestions on IP management practices. We received more than 40 articles, and the special issue contains the 12 articles that both guest editors and reviewers considered more aligned and more stimulating with respect to the focus outlined above.