Research On The Effect Of Platform Intellectual Asset Governance On Platform Partners Innovation Incentives

With the rapid development of Internet technology,multi-sided platforms based on Internet technology,such as eBay,taobao,Tmall,as well as various platforms for applications or Apps,have gradually become the dominant organizational form for social and economic development.However,the imitation of intellectual assets is emerging frequently in the multi-sided platforms,which discourages the actors who provide complementary products for the platforms.The characteristics of platform innovation-no boundary of innovation activities,virtualization of innovation cooperation,difficulty in defining of innovation knowledge and dependence of innovation income acquisition-lead to the platform intellectual assets governance from the perspective of appropriability logic cannot effectively control the opportunistic behaviors,unable to effectively guarantee the profit from innovation to the innovation actors,and motivate the platform partners to carry out innovation.The practice of platform intellectual assets governance expands the space for legitimacy theory.Legitimacy theory can bridge the relationship between organizations and environments.It is not only consistent with appropriability in theory and logic,but also a larger theoretical category than appropriability theory,served as the regulation,norm and cognition for innovation value capture.Therefore,the legitimacy theory is introduced to discuss the platform intellectual assets governance,so as to define the conceptual boundary and clarify the mechanisms of platform intellectual asset governance.Based on the facts above,the research question is "in the context of multi-sided platforms based on Internet technology,how does platform intellectual assets governance realize platform partner's innovation incentive?”Firstly,using grounded theory analysis,this study ueses qualitative data from four typical multi-sided platform cases to propose the constructs of platform intellectual assets governance and its mechanism,such as a series of initial propositions of "platform intellectual assets governance—platform partner legitimacy—innovation incentives."Secondly,through the dialogue with the existing literature,this study complements and improves the constructs of platform intellectual assets governance and its mechanism,and the measurable constructions and hypotheses are put forward,and the large sample statistical empirical analysis was carried out.Thirdly,From the platform leaders,platform users and platform partners,this study explores how the different matching forms of platform indirect network effects,platform openness,demand diversity of platform users,knowledge matching of platform partners and platform intellectual assets governance effect incentives for platform partner innovation.Using fsQCA as the empirical method to obtain different configurations for high innovation incentives;Fourthly,from the dynamic perspective,this study proposes a model for platform intellectual assets governance institution change,exploring the institutional work of platform intellectual assets governance and its change process.This dissertation obtains four conclusions.(1)Platform intellectual assets governance is a kind of institutional arrangements,which aims to prevent imitation and motivate innovation of platform partners.Three mechanisms are included:intellectual property rights of innovation actors,norm of network communities and governance logic of agents.(2)Through the analysis of 708 samples,it is known that the norm of network communities plays a limited role in preventing the imitation,whereas intellectual property rights of innovation actors and governance logic of agents can prevent imitation in the platforms.In addition,three mechanisms can all motivates the platform partner innovation.Moreover,the legitimacy of platform partners plays an intermediary role between platform intellectual asset governance and platform partners innovation incentive.(3)Through the fsQCA analysis of 708 samples,it can be see that two different configurations can effectively prevent the imitation in the platform,and four different configurations can effectively encourage platform partners to carry out innovation.(4)The platform leader govenances the platform intellectual asset including three stages of institutional creating?institutional recreating and institutional maintancing.The institutional creating composed of intellectual asset governance contracts and norms work,the institutional recreating composed of intellectual asset governance identity work and network contact work,the institutional maintancing composed of intellectual asset governance protection of original work and incentives innovation work.Compared with the exiting studies,this dissertation contributes to three aspects:(1)Focusing on the context of multi-sided platform based on Internet technology,this dissertation makes convergence of the theory of platform intellectual assets governance and analyses its mechanism.By introducing the legitimacy theory into the theory of profit from innovation,this study clarifies the basic concept and theoretical logic of platform intellectual assets governance,constructs the framework of"platform intellectual assets governance-the legitimacy of platform partner--innovation incentive",analyses the causal relationship among the three from the micro level,and expands the theoretical boundary of profiting from innovation.(2)From the perspective of legitimacy audience,this dissertation reveals the role of legitimacy of platform partner in the platform intellectual assets governance and the incentive of platform partner innovation,analyses the construction process of the platform intellectual assets governance institution by platform leaders from the dynamic perspective,deepens the research of the legitimacy theory,and enriches the connotation and extension of the institutional work..(3)This dissertation reveals the influence of different configurations between platform intellectual assets governance and the platform's characteristics on preventing imitation and innovation incentives,converges the theoretical boundary of the platform's intellectual assets governance,and expands the scope of platform governance theory.