"Open" disclosure of innovations, incentives and follow-on reuse
Subtitle: theory on processes of cumulative innovation and a field experiment in computational biology
By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Karim R. Lakhani
Contributors: Lakhani, Karim R.; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 14-002; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 14-002.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 29
Work titles: Cumulative innovation & open disclosure of intermediate results: evidence from a policy experiment in bioinformatics
Description: Most of society's innovation systems -- academic science, the patent system, open source, etc. -- are "open" in the sense that they are designed to facilitate knowledge disclosure among innovators. An essential difference across innovation systems is whether disclosure is of intermediate progress and solutions or of completed innovations. We present experimental evidence that links intermediate versus final disclosure not just with quantitative tradeoffs that shape the rate of innovation, but also with transformation of the very nature of the innovation search process. We find intermediate disclosure has the advantage of efficiently steering development towards improving existing solution approaches, but also the effect of limiting experimentation and narrowing technological search. We discuss the comparative advantages of intermediate versus final disclosure policies in fostering innovation.
Notes: Revision of Cumulative innovation & open disclosure of intermediate results: evidence from a policy experiment in bioinformatics.

"July 2013. (Revised September 2014.)"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 30-33).