AIMS 2014
Corbel, P. « Gérer l’empreinte d’un modèle dominant : le cas de l’influence du modèle PFI dans le champ du management stratégique de l’innovation et de la propriété intellectuelle », Proceedings of the 23rd conference of the AIMS (Association Internationale de Management Stratégique), Rennes, May 2014
Abstract:
In this paper, we examine the place of the "Profiting from Innovation" model proposed by David J. Teece in the field of strategic innovation management. This model has become the benchmark when it comes to assessing a company's ability to benefit from the innovations it originates and the strategies it can implement to do so. This model gives a specific importance to "appropriation regimes" and intellectual property. As a result, it is virtually indispensable when it comes to the strategic management of intellectual property rights (henceforth IP).
This is because it sheds light in a "sober" (without excessive complexity) and powerful way on a classic problem in the economics and management of innovation. It also has the merit of establishing a link between the means of appropriation (mainly secrecy and patents) and other assets held by the company (the famous "complementary assets"). It, therefore, fits in very naturally with the resource-based approach and the different theoretical contributions of its author, specifically the concept of "dynamic capabilities" (Teece et al., 1997). However, it focuses attention on a particular approach to IP rights. Paradoxically, it is both the model that has made it possible to connect IP strategy and general company strategy and a model that risks restricting progress in this field.
We therefore propose an extension of this PFI model by introducing the direct search for another type of economic rent (Ricardian or Schumpeterian rents) and also a completely different type of rent (learning rents). This extension is based in particular on the work of Kay (2010), whose main thesis is that goals are most often better achieved indirectly, with 'oblique' reasoning, rather than directly. Although it retains the foundations of Teece's model, we believe that this extension enables us to take better account of certain recent phenomena or phenomena of which strategic management research has only recently become aware. In particular, we focus our analysis on the strategic management of IP rights, a field particularly influenced by the PFI model, even if we are led to establish links with other aspects of innovation management.