From Doves, Magpies and Urban Sparrows: The External Strategic Forces Driving Knowledge Protection Approaches in German SMEs

Knowledge protection serves as the means to securing valuable knowledge assets, the basis of firm strategy according to the resource-based view. Current research has not taken into account external strategic drivers. This study focuses on identifying these strategic drivers and identifies related patterns in protection approaches. I employ an explorative qualitative research design, including 9 German SMEs. The results show that firms can be categorized into 3 protection approaches. Firms set up protection like Doves, Magpies or Urban Sparrows. They are peaceful, protecting their most-valuable assets or invest in general knowledge protection, respectively. The results show that the approach depends on the external strategic drivers of an industry. Consequently, the external perspective should be included in future research. Managers can use the insights to set up knowledge protection in a focused and strategy-aligned manner.