Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Bosworth, Derek; Webster, Elizabeth --- "An Economic Perspective" [2006] ELECD 348; in Bosworth, Derek; Webster, Elizabeth (eds), "The Management of Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: The Management of Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Bosworth, Derek; Webster, Elizabeth

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845421120

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: An Economic Perspective

Author(s): Bosworth, Derek; Webster, Elizabeth

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

5. An economic perspective1
Derek Bosworth and Elizabeth Webster

1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter reviews theoretical and empirical economic studies that discuss
intangible assets (IAs) and intellectual capital (IC), and the associated
discretionary investments of the enterprise (that is, R&D, advertising,
training, adoption of high-performance work practices ­ HPWPs ­ and
so on) that generate them (Bosworth 2005). Given that, for a large and an
increasing number of companies, intangibles form a considerable proportion
of their total assets, an understanding of IAs is not only crucial to the
management of IAs themselves, but to the strategic decision-making of
the company as a whole.
The bulk of the economic literature, however, is either based on conceptual
models or provides empirical estimates based on relatively large-scale,
enterprise-level data sets ­ the results of which managers find difficult to
use. By demonstrating what economists have been doing, what has been
found, as well as the current limitations to the results, the present chapter
may allow managers to press economics and related disciplines to address
questions of importance to them. The management orientation of the
present chapter restricts the focus of the discussion to the consideration
of private issues (that is, those relevant to the commercial sector, as opposed
to broader welfare issues).
Section 2 begins by discussing the nature of IC and how this can be
distinguished from the broader concept of IAs. It introduces the question
of ownership rights and, thereby, appropriability. Section 3 outlines the
special nature and properties of ...