Robert Pitkethly

Intellectual property strategy in Japanese and UK companies: patent licensing decisions and learning opportunities

Abstract Intellectual Property (IP) management of explicit knowledge encapsulated in and managed by Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is discussed using the first comparative study of UK and Japanese IP management. IPs role in both licensing and continuous learning, whether through licensing or patent information management (PIM), is illustrated. Japanese companies actively search for technology to license in to a greater extent than in the UK where attitudes to IP are more static even though active marketing of technology to license out is similar. It is shown that IP strategy occurs in a space defined by time, techno-legal scope and technological advantage and that licensing decisions need consideration from licensee and licensor viewpoints and a dynamic not static viewpoint.

Foreign Direct Investment in the UK 1985–1994: The Impact on Domestic Management Practice

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK has grown considerably in recent years. US, French, German and Japanese companies have generally accounted for the largest share of this FDI. In addition to greenfield and expansion investment, a major vehicle for inward FDI has been the acquisition of UKcompanies. This paper examines whether nationally distinct approaches to management were introduced, following acquisition, among a sample of 201 UK subsidiaries of French, German, Japanese,US and UK companies. It provides data on the extent of changes and the post-acquisition influence of the new parent, comparing changes between the four foreign nationalities and a UK control group. The study indicates that the process of being acquired and controlled by a foreign parent company was often followed by significant changes in management practice. Some changes were common to all acquisitions, including those by UK companies. A shift towards performance-related rewards and a stronger quality emphasis in operations are two examples. In addition, there was also evidence of effects which differed between nationalities. These conformed to accepted characterizations of national management practice in the case of Japanese and US acquirers, but less so in the case of French and German acquisitions. The findings suggest that present views of French and German management practice require further investigation.

International mergers and acquisitions in the UK 1985-94: a comparison of national HRM practices

The paper investigates HRM practices adopted by companies from the USA, Japan, Germany and France in UK companies that they have acquired. UK/UK acquisitions are used as a control. The research is based on a survey instrument applied to 201 companies and interviews with forty. It notes that there is some convergence of HRM practices, in that, for example, all countries researched employ performance-related pay and increase the amount of training in their new subsidiaries. It finds, however, that there is a distinct difference in the HRM practices employed by companies from each of the countries, influenced by the characteristic HR practices common to companies in the country of origin of the parent.

Changes in Management Practice and the Post-Acquisition Performance Achieved by Direct Investors in the UK

Changes in the competitive performance of 201 UK firms acquired by foreign investors are examined. Performance improvement was found to be associated with the introduction of changes to management practice rather than with contextual factors such as acquirer nationality, size, date of acquisition, profitability of subsidiary at acquisition or sector. The changes having most impact were increased efforts to improve the market image of the acquired company, the development of new products and services, and moves towards involving and developing staff. There appears to be more than one path towards post-acquisition performance improvement, with distinctions emerging between Anglo-American, Japanese and, to a lesser extent, French approaches. The successful Anglo-American approach involves a product innovation strategy, increased decentralization and improved training. High-performing Japanese acquisitions tend to emphasize a price-competitive strategy, to increase centralization and to adopt a longer-term HRM policy. The French path towards good post-acquisition performance includes increased cost control, more open communication and decentralization. The general conclusion of the investigation is that foreign acquisition can harness the assets and competencies of UK companies to good effect, but that there is more than one way of achieving this result.

Organisational change processes in international acquisitions

Following the previous chapter’s discussion of how acquiring companies for the USA, Japan, Germany and France integrated their U.K. acquisitions with regard to the overall level of integration attempted and achieved, control, communication and strategic philosophy, this chapter discusses the organisational change mechanisms adopted in order to achieve this integration. The previous chapter gives details on the methodology adopted for the research and the criteria for the choice of sample. The codes for the companies (e.g. US04) follow those laid out in Tables 1–4 (pp. 37–38).

Intellectual property awareness

Intellectual property (IP) systems depend on awareness of intellectual property yet study and measurement of this has hitherto been neglected. Components of and measures for IP awareness are discussed and studied using a large scale survey of UK industry. This addressed three main issues of: 1 IP knowledge and understanding 2 IP management practises 3 awareness and use of IP information and advice. IP awareness scales were constructed using both classical measurement theory and Rasch model scales. The survey showed that larger companies are more IP aware whilst SMEs and the mass of micro-enterprises are often effectively unaware of the IP system. The findings showed the importance of promoting IP awareness not just to firms but also within firms and that promoting IP awareness to smaller companies is vital to the system’s success.

Business Method Patents and Venture Capital Investment Decisions

The intellectual property (IP) system of any country plays a significant but in some senses uncertain role in the range of policy measures that might be used to encourage investment in innovation. Fritz Machlup (1958) is often cited to support the view that uncertainty about patents’ effects counsels against both implementing and abolishing patent systems. Edith Penrose (1951) writing seven years earlier pointed this out in her study of the international patent system, saying: ‘If national patent laws did not exist, it would be difficult to make a conclusive case for introducing them; but the fact that they do exist shifts the burden of proof and it is equally difficult to make a really conclusive case for abolishing them.’ Penrose made this comment when referring to the nineteenth century debate about patents and Machlup and Penrose’s prior discussion of the nineteenth century patent controversy (1950) dealt in large part with the debate about abolition. However, they also commented in that article that ‘little, if anything, has been said for or against the patent system in the twentieth century that was not said equally well in the nineteenth’. That statement applies equally to the twenty-first century. However, rather than merely revisiting past debates, changes in patent law and the IP environment give reason enough to raise old questions in the light of new circumstances.