Watch the online recording:

Seminar: 9.30 am – 11.00 am (60 minutes for the talk and up to 30 minutes for questions)
Session with PhD students: 11.30 am – 12.30 pm

Speaker: Christopher Tucci

Title: The Art of the Possible: Increasing value of nascent technologies using Strategic Disclosure

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the implications of using strategic disclosure for nascent technologies or complex inventions. While there has been voluminous discussion in the literature about the effects of patenting early-stage inventions, there has been much less research on the disclosure of these nascent technologies. There is, however, significant practical evidence of firms doing exactly this through their own technology disclosure journals. These journals are, or were, self-published with the intent of creating prior art without the expense or exactitude that patenting requires. We examine recursive patents—patents that cite back to the applicant firm’s own prior strategic disclosure—and how they compare to non-recursive patents. We find that recursive patents are more likely to be representative of nascent technologies or complex inventions. Moreover, our analysis indicates that recursive patents generate superior value, especially when they represent earlystage technologies or complex inventions. Given the uncertainty of early-stage patenting and the transaction costs associated with it, we conclude that there are significant practical management implications in favor of the use of strategic disclosure.

Biography: Christopher L. Tucci is Professor of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Imperial College Business School. He was Professor of Management of Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he held the Chair in Corporate Strategy & Innovation. He was Dean of the College of Management from 2013-2018. In 2018, he was Visiting Thought Leader at CEIBS in Shanghai, China. He received the degrees of Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT; SM (Technology & Policy) from MIT; and BS (Mathematical Sciences), AB (Music), and MS (Computer Science) from Stanford University. He was an industrial computer scientist involved in developing Internet protocols and applying artificial intelligence tools. Professor Tucci teaches courses in Design Thinking, Digital Strategy, and Innovation Management. His primary area of interest is in how firms make transitions to new business models, technologies, and organizational forms. He also studies crowdsourcing, Internetworking, and digital innovations. He has published articles in, among others, Academy of Management Review (AMR), Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Research Policy, Communications of the ACM, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Academy of Management Annals, and Journal of Product Innovation Management. His article with Allan Afuah, “Crowdsourcing as solution to distant search,” won the Best Paper of 2012 for AMR. He has served in leadership positions in the Academy of Management (AOM) and the Strategic Management Society.