This paper develops a theoretical framework in which patents and control of downstream co-specialized assets affect the way firms profit from innovation according to the stage of industry evolution. We argue that in early stages of industry life cycle the effectiveness of patents in protecting...

Over the last decade, companies have paid greater attention to the management of their intellectual assets. We build a model that helps understand how licensing activity should be organized within large corporations. More specifically, we compare decentralization--where the business unit using...