پویایی حقوق مالکیت معنوی برای اعتماد، اشتراک دانش و نوآوری در تیم پروژه The dynamics of intellectual property rights for trust, knowledge sharing and innovation in project teams

1. Introduction Nothing is a resource until actors’ discover how to use it and how to benefit from using it. Knowledge has only potential value. It is the collaborative action that gives knowledge value. It creates value and innovations when knowledge is shared and used. Legal contracts play a significant role in clarifying how knowledge creates value and who is to benefit from the generated value. Knowledge is a critical asset and an important source of innovation, but to protect it might be even more critical. The protection might be a requirement for knowledge sharing (e.g., Du Chatenier, Verstegen, Biemans, & Omta, 2009; Nonaka, Toyama, & Konno, 2000). Formal contracts may also have potentially adverse effects on the collaboration and the level of knowledge sharing (Grant, 1996). Thus, knowledge sharing and the conditions for knowledge exchange becomes a major challenge in managing innovations. One way of creating such conditions is using Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). IPRs are often introduced to protect and specify ownership to the valuable assets developed in projects. We define IPRs as the rights linked to any product and/or knowledge drawn up in an intellectual process in cooperation between companies. IPRs include the whole development process towards the innovation design and patent phase of a product and/or service. We refer to IPRs not only as IPRs that are granted and protected by laws, but also knowledge and other intangible resources whose use may be controlled by contracts, policies, organizational routines, and norms, both physically and technically. IPRs include all cooperative innovations and results developed in the inter-organisational project team. There is a gap in understanding how and if the use of formal protection mechanisms affects trust, attitudes, knowledge sharing and innovation in project teams (Aarseth, 2014). The dynamics of IPRs and knowledge sharing in inter-organizational teams are weakly researched (Vaaland & H & kansson, 2003). Inter-organisational project teams are essential for global collaboration and innovation (Scarbrough, 2003; Ring & Van-de-Ven, 1994). Exploring and researching such an IPR context might be the understanding of the future organization of any global business.