Increasingly, commercializing new technological innovations means drawing on multiple inventions spread across various firms. In multi-invention contexts (such as smartphones), a single person or company rarely invents and patents all the components of a commercially viable product. Success requires that companies choose the right business model, manage their patent strategies, and align their business model and company strategies. Firms must choose between integrated business models (assembling as many complementary technologies and commercialization assets as possible within the firm) and non-integrated business models (combining inventions with those of others through component or licensing market relationships). <br><br>After selecting a business model, firms need to implement a patent strategy, which can be broadly categorized as either a) proprietary, where the firm seeks to stake out and defend a proprietary market advantage; b) defensive, where the firm may not wish to use patents to gain a competitive advantage, but needs to not be put at a competitive disadvantage by other firms’ patents; and c) leveraging, where the firm relies on using a patent’s power to prevent others from using the invention, thus enabling the firm to collect revenue, influence a technology, or close business deals. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of firms developing and aligning patent strategies with business models from the beginning, not merely on an ad hoc basis.

More than ever, commercializing new patent-based products requires drawing on multiple inventions typically spread among a variety of organizations. Success requires overcoming the organizational barriers and transaction costs involved with accessing intellectual property. Innovators must also evaluate how best to appropriate value from the unique combinations that they create. This article presents a framework that provides ways of approaching both these challenges. These include a set of guidelines to assist managers in choosing from among three types of commercialization arrangements: licensing, componentization, and integration. This article then explores three strategies for appropriating the value of the innovator's own patent(s): proprietary, defensive, and leveraging. The choice of a strategy determines the scope of the intellectual property portfolio that needs to be assembled to best capture value. Four case studies demonstrate the application of the key theoretical concepts in real-world situations.

An implicit assumption of the "war for talent" perspective is that departing workers are lost to competitors. Managers should consider two criteria -- the destination and knowledge of departing employees -- when determining how best to handle worker turnover. There are four different scenarios. In the first, employees with knowledge that is generic or of low strategic importance leave to join competitors. This hampers the productive capacity of an organization, while increasing that of its competitors. Defensive maneuvers (such as improving employee benefits) are recommended. In the second scenario, employees possessing knowledge that has low strategic importance depart to join cooperators. Administrative and human-capital costs are incurred that must be weighed against possible social-capital benefits -- the new business opportunities that can be generated by ex-employees in their new jobs. Companies are advised to adopt relational actions to maintain positive relationships with these former employees. The third scenario -- employees with strategically important, company-specific knowledge resign to take jobs with competitors -- is potentially the most damaging form of turnover. Companies might emphasize retaliatory actions (such as the threat of lawsuits to enforce non-compete clauses in contracts) in addition to defensive maneuvers to retain crucial employees. In the fourth scenario, employees with strategically important, company-specific knowledge leave to work for cooperators. Because this loss incurs high administrative and human-capital costs, companies have a strong incentive to adopt defensive strategies to reduce such turnover. But this can also lead to opportunities for businesses to expand their social capital with important clients and suppliers. Therefore, when defensive maneuvers fail, a company should consider adopting a relational approach, maintaining positive relationships with departing employees as they transition into their new jobs.