Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to reconcile managerial and economic approaches of the firm. Strategic management seems to be the perfect playground for this. Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows many divergences between the economic and managerial...

Following the seminal work of Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959) innovation is traditionally viewed as an individual process involving isolated agents connected only through market interactions and the outcome of this process, knowledge, is assumed to share the properties of a public good. Once...

This paper investigates the meaning and the importance of the concept of openness for knowledge and innovation. We propose two definitions of openness for a piece of knowledge, a weak one and a strong one. The common point between the two is that they both emphasize the centrality of the...

This paper explores start-up creation in biotech through an in-depth analysis of four new ventures located in the Upper Rhine Biovalley. This analysis helps us discuss the role of several factors in the performance of a new biotech firm. The study specifically outlines three elements, namely:...

This contribution aims at analyzing the role of patents in inter-organization networks in the field of biotechnology. We examine the traditional rationale for firms to apply for a patent, which focuses on the protection against competition as the basic motive of application, and we claim that...

This paper proposes a unified conceptual framework to analyze the multiple role and consequences of patents in the case of biotechnology research tools. We argue that the knowledge/information and independent/complementary nature of research tools define heterogeneous frameworks in which the...

This paper analyses the strategic uses of patents in markets for technology. In particular, we study the behaviors of technological firms, patent brokers and patent trolls and explore their consequences on the amount of R&D investments of the economy. We show that patent brokers, in their pure...