The Role of Appropriability Strategies in Shaping Innovative Performance

The strategies firms use to protect their intellectual property and knowledge can strongly influence their ability to capture the benefits of their innovative efforts. In attempting to appropriate their innovations, firms can chose from a range of mechanisms, including patents, trade secrets and lead times. Yet, little is known about how the use of different appropriability mechanisms may shape innovative performance. Using a large-scale database of UK manufacturing firms, we examine how legal (such as patents) and first mover (such as secrecy) appropriability strategies shape performance. We find that both strategies are curvilinearly (taking an inverted U-shape) related to innovative performance, indicting that some firms may suffer from a myopia of protectiveness, relying too heavily on appropriation to the detriment of other activities.