UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
Inter-firm technology transfer: Partnership-embedded licensing or standard licensing agreements?
John Hagedoorn, Stefanie Lorenz-Orlean & Hans van Kranenburg #2007-006When companies decide to engage in technology transfer through licensing
to other firms, they have two basic options: to use standard licensing
contracts or to set-up more elaborate partnership-embedded licensing
agreements. We find that broader partnership-embedded licensing
agreements are preferred with higher levels of technological
sophistication of industries, with greater perceived effectiveness of
secrecy as a means of appropriability, and when licensors are smaller
than their licensees. Innovative differentials between companies,
innovative supremacy of the licensor, and market and technological
overlap between partners appear to have no effect on the preference for
a particular form of licensing.
Running headline: INTER-FIRM TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Keywords: technology transfer, licensing, inter-firm partnership, innovation
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
ISSN 1871-9872
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