Open innovation is often facilitated by strong intellectual property rights (IPRs), but it may also function, and even be boosted, when firms deliberately waive some of their IPRs. Extant literature has pointed out the potential benefits of such behavior, but falls short of explaining what...

We extend theory on private–collective innovation by studying the role of exclusion rights for technology in the competition between private–collective and other innovators. We argue that private–collective innovators both pledge their own and invest in orphan exclusion rights for...