To patent or not to patent: That is the question. Intellectual property protection in family firms

Author:

Chirico Francesco12ORCID,Criaco Giuseppe3ORCID,Baù Massimo1,Naldi Lucia1,Gomez-Mejia Luis R.4,Kotlar Josip5ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden

2. Tecnológico de Monterrey, EGADE Business School, Mexico

3. Department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

4. Department of Management, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

5. School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Abstract

This study examines family firms’ propensity to protect their intellectual property through patents. Building on the mixed gamble logic of the behavioral agency model, we theorize that family ownership has a U-shaped relationship with firm propensity to patent. Specifically, we argue that family firms’ desire to prevent losses of current socioemotional wealth (SEW) inhibits their propensity to patent until a threshold level of family ownership, beyond which the family’s SEW is secured and a greater focus on prospective financial gains attainable through patents is possible. We also suggest that environmental munificence moderates this nonlinear relationship such that a low-munificent environment accentuates the potentially detrimental (beneficial) effects of low-to-medium (medium-to-high) levels of family ownership on patents. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 4,198 small- and medium-sized family firms.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Economics and Econometrics,Business and International Management

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