Start-Ups and Licensing Agreements: An Exploratory Case Study

Licensing agreements can exist between established companies but they increasingly also give rise to start-up companies, built around the licensed technology. Licensing-out technology can represent a risk as well as an opportunity for any licensor as there is a trade-off between additional revenues that can be gained from the licensing agreement and the costs related to the transfer itself, as well as the risks of opportunism by the licensee. When licensing to a start-up, this risk is higher, as start-ups have scarce resources, high failure rates and no past performance on which to gauge the start-up’s success. For the start-up the license could also represent a risk in the form of sunk costs and constraints on their evolution path. This paper discusses under which conditions technology licensing between a licensor and a start-up can be beneficial to both parties. Through a qualitative analysis, interviewing a number of European start-ups, we will examine in particular the role of contractual clauses, the relationship between licensor and licensee, the role of the licensed technology in the final product and the role of a technology push versus demand-pull scenario in a licensing deal. For all these aspects we will reflect on their influence on the licensor and licensee

Fuel on the Invention Funnel: Technology Licensing-in, Antecedents and Invention

In this paper, we examine the impact of technology licensing-in on firm invention performance. Studying a sample of 266 licensees and matched non-licensees using a two-part model specification, we find that licensees are more likely to introduce inventions than their non-licensee counterparts. This holds both if we consider invention in general, and invention in the licensed technological class only. We also show that familiarity with the licensed technology and technological specialization drives licensees to pursue a narrow invention strategy primarily focusing on the technological class specified in the license agreement.Licensing-in, Invention, Dynamic Capabilities, Learning Opportunities, Technological familiarity, Technological specialization

When vicarious learning rewards the originating firm: Exploring the learning opportunities available to the licensor

Why should companies engage in licensing-out? While conventional wisdom mostly focuses on the financial and commercial benefits available to the licensor, this paper points to the learning opportunities entailed in licensing agreements. We develop an exploratory study built around a longitudinal cross-industry database of 558 licensing deals and we apply the vicarious learning framework to analyze the learning opportunities exploited by the licensor, as a result of engaging with a particular licensee in the first place. We investigate the licensor-licensee dyads on several dimensions, capturing their profiles and the different learning opportunities exploited; we also compare dyads that invert their role in a subsequent round to dyads that do not to understand whether there are difference in terms of learning patterns. Findings offer several insights consistent with a learning scenario, thus prompting further empirical research

Fuel on the Invention Funnel: Technology Licensing-in, Antecedents and Invention

Technology management has so far largely overlooked that licensing-in may represent learning opportunities for the recipient firm. Attention has primarily been directed towards a more tactic explanation for the decision of firms to in-license external technologies. However, increasing empirical evidence witnesses an inducing effect of licensing-in on the inventive behavior of the single firm which, in turn, feeds its development and growth. The aim of this paper is to explore whether licensing-in in fact acts as a catalyst for inventive activities pursued by licensee firms. We employ a two-part model to investigate the inventiveness of 133 licensees compared to an equally sized matched sample of non-licensees. The study reveals that licensees exhibit elevated invention performances compared to non-licensee counterparts. This holds both when considering invention in general and invention in licensed technological class.. In addition, the paper reveals that familiarity with the licensed technology and technological specialization instigates the licensee to pursue a narrow invention strategy as defined by the technological classes of the licensed patent.Technology management has so far largely overlooked that licensing-in may represent learning opportunities for the recipient firm. Attention has primarily been directed towards a more tactic explanation for the decision of firms to in-license external technologies. However, increasing empirical evidence witnesses an inducing effect of licensing-in on the inventive behavior of the single firm which, in turn, feeds its development and growth. The aim of this paper is to explore whether licensing-in in fact acts as a catalyst for inventive activities pursued by licensee firms. We employ a two-part model to investigate the inventiveness of 133 licensees compared to an equally sized matched sample of non-licensees. The study reveals that licensees exhibit elevated invention performances compared to non-licensee counterparts. This holds both when considering invention in general and invention in licensed technological class.. In addition, the paper reveals that familiarity with the licensed technology and technological specialization instigates the licensee to pursue a narrow invention strategy as defined by the technological classes of the licensed patent.Non-Refereed Working Papers / of national relevance onl

From a distinctive sign to an exchangeable asset: exploring the U.S. market for trademark licensing

A remarkable growth in the value of trademark licensing has been recently recorded. Our paper contributes to the understanding of this under-explored phenomenon using a dataset newly released by the USPTO. Our study analyses the evolution of licensing activities in the U.S. during the 2003-2017 period, the characteristics of these trademarks and agreements, and certain features of the licensing parties involved. We found that licensing activities varied considerably during these years. They were usually signed between two parties only, and, on average, they involved more than one trademark. Excluding under-reporting effect, the analyses reveal that a large portion of heterogeneity in licensing activity is due to the NICE international classes associated with each trademark. Indeed, trademark licensing agreements appear to be unevenly distributed across these classes, suggesting that this activity and the way it is carried out is correlated with the market to which the licensed trademark refers

Open Social Innovation local ecosystems: The case of Dolomiti Innovation Valley

The teaching case entitled 'Open social innovation local ecosystems: Dolomiti Innovation Valley' describes how to put in practice open social innovation (OSI) management models, showing how apparently fuzzy aspects (such as openness and social change) become operational through multi-stakeholder governance and place-based approaches to sustain impactful local innovation ecosystems

The bnt162b2 vaccine induces humoral and cellular immune memory to sars-cov-2 Wuhan strain and the Omicron variant in children 5 to 11 years of age

SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines prevent severe COVID-19 by generating immune memory, comprising specific antibodies and memory B and T cells. Although children are at low risk of severe COVID-19, the spreading of highly transmissible variants has led to increasing in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations also in the youngest, but vaccine coverage remains low. Immunogenicity to mRNA vaccines has not been extensively studied in children 5 to 11 years old. In particular, cellular immunity to the wild-type strain (Wuhan) and the cross-reactive response to the Omicron variant of concern has not been investigated. We assessed the humoral and cellular immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccine in 27 healthy children. We demonstrated that vaccination induced a potent humoral and cellular immune response in all vaccinees. By using spike-specific memory B cells as a measurable imprint of a previous infection, we found that 50% of the children had signs of a past, undiagnosed infection before vaccination. Children with pre-existent immune memory generated significantly increased levels of specific antibodies, and memory T and B cells, directed against not only the wild type virus but also the omicron variant