COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Competing in the Sharing Economy: B2B Consultancies and the Intellectual Property Regime
Creator:
Kalinowski, Jonathan
Subject:
Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Service Design
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Service Design
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
If the intellectual property system does encourage innovative activity, then what transpires in the absence of protection? In particular, how does the current intellectual property system affect the dynamics of service innovation, and vice-versa? Furthermore, how can service firms survive and thrive in the absence of an intellectual property system vis-à-vis the coming sharing economy? There is an opportunity to use service design thinking in the formulation of new business strategies to achieve differentiation and cost advantages which incentivizes service innovation in the absence of an intellectual property regime. Case study research was conducted with three business-to-business (B2B) consultancies (knowledge-intensive businesses, or service firms) to investigate and understand their relationship to intellectual property. It seems that B2B consultancies, and by extension, service firms, have a tenuous relationship to the existing structure of intellectual property, and that despite the fact that only fragments of service provisions can be protected, service innovation still occurs. Using a six-step framework based on four core themes that emerged from this study, B2B consultancies can structure and guide their efforts to innovate service, while achieving a formidable competitive advantage. The six steps are: break down barriers to co-create, look into the future, manage knowledge effectively, match-make, support through culture and space, and P.I.E.: practice, iterate and evolve.
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2014-05
Format:
PDF : 103 p. : ill