On the Commercialisation of 'Trailing' Knowledge and Intellectual Property

摘要

Within any company that conducts significant Research and Development (R&D) to support its business operations, a significant amount of knowledge and intellectual property (IP) is also generated. The purpose of R&D within such organisations is typically to create new knowledge, products and services which can be commercialised by the business to gain competitive advantage. While most of the knowledge and IP that arise from R&D may be leveraged and exploited to support and enhance core business, however, some of the knowledge and IP that are perceived as not directly related to core business are typically not commercialised. The key question is often what to do with existing knowledge and IP that cannot be directly absorbed and exploited for the core business activities and market(s) of the firm. The conundrum is why the seemingly obvious choice of commercialisation of such "trailing" knowledge and IP does not always materialise. Using an existing company as its subject, this paper examines the perplexities regarding the commercialisation of "trailing" knowledge and IP arising from main stream R&D for established business purposes. Inferences have been drawn from a limited review of case studies and the impact of unintended bias due to embedded company culture is remarkable.