Designing Technology Licensing Contracts

Intellectual property rights are fundamental to value appropriation
from innovation in high-tech industries. Within these industries,
companies frequently out-license technologies as an alternative to
commercializing technologies themselves. Recent studies have
argued that the potential for value appropriation and learning from
technology licensing depends on the design of licensing contracts.
Our research aims to investigate which factors firms take into
account when designing licensing contracts and how contract design
influences performance. Taking a more holistic view of contract
design, the first research objective (RO1), is to examine the
occurrence of certain constellations, or combinations, of contract
clauses. The second research objective (RO2), is to understand
whether contract design choices – studied in RO1 - affect the
financial success of license agreements and technological learning
by licensor and licensee. The third research objective (RO3)
addresses when firms rely on digital marketplaces for technology
licensing and whether digital markets for technology affect contract
design. To address the research objectives, we will use a mixed
method approach that consists of hypothesis-building qualitative
research followed by hypothesis-testing quantitative research based
on content analysis (natural language processing) of a large set of
licensing contracts in the pharmaceutical sector.