For small firms, knowledge leakage, loss and theft are counted among the greatest risks in inter-firm collaborations. SMEs are more vulnerable, because they suffer from a number of structural disadvantages when collaborating with larger companies, and yet, they need to collaborate with external partners to overcome their lack of resources.Therefore, this study investigates how SMEs can most effectively protect critical knowledge in collaborations with external partners, for that they can prevent knowledge loss, leakage and theft, while maximizing the performance of the collaboration.This book derives valuable insights for practice and theory through a comprehensive review of existing literature and a collection and analysis of experiences from Germany’s most innovative and successful SMEs.

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: Sehr gut, Vienna University of Economics and Business (Entrepreneurship & Innovation), language: English, abstract: For small firms, knowledge leakage, loss and theft are counted among the greatest risks in inter-firm collaborations. SMEs are more vulnerable, because they suffer from a number of structural disadvantages when collaborating with larger companies, and yet, they need to collaborate with external partners to overcome their lack of resources. Therefore, this study investigates how SMEs can most effectively protect critical knowledge in collaborations with external partners, for that they can prevent knowledge loss, leakage and theft, while maximizing the performance of the collaboration. Based on a comprehensive review of existing literature, and a qualitative multiple-case study evaluation, where highly innovative and successful SMEs in Germany contributed their experiences, I have derived valuable insights for practice and theory. Overall, the most commonly used means of protecting critical knowledge were secrecy, patents, the systematic selection of partners, and contracts. Despite the importance given to these mechanisms, not all of them proved to be effective. In fact, trust, secrecy and the systematic selection of partners were considered to be most effective, while initial secrecy and patents were concluded to overprotect knowledge, thus, limiting the possible overall innovative performance. Complementary assets, rotating personnel, oligopolistic market structures, equity relationships, technical means of protection, and employee contracts were found to be entirely ineffective for SMEs. When analyzing the relations of protection mechanisms, a significant correlation between the type of protection and the openness to external innovation emerged: companies, which used initial secrecy and patents to protect knowledge, did

Technology plays a critical role in transforming societies and economies through enhancing efficiency, connectivity and access to resources and services. The challenge remains how to harness technologies to achieve sustainable development without causing harm to human and natural capitals. Professor Odeh Rashed Al-Jayyousi argues that science, technology and innovation (STI) are underpinned by social choices and, hence, a transition to a sustainable green economy is defined by individuals’ and institutions’ decisions on how to use and apply these STI developments. It is, therefore, important to examine closely the ways in which social institutions and processes in the “integral worlds” (the different perspectives of reality) shape the priorities of technologies and the conditions under which their potential benefits can be reaped. He states that in order for technological innovation to provide a guarantee of sustainable economic development, it is necessary that a transfer of technology to developing countries becomes a basic principle of national development policies, and that they, in turn, are open to adopting an explicit long-term application of technological innovation. Integral Innovation: New Worldviews presents a conceptual framework for the evolution of technology and innovation from a historical and cultural perspective. It provides an analysis of the role of innovation and technology in sustainable development and introduces a number of international case studies, which shed light on the social learning processes for knowledge co-creation and innovation culture. It is essential reading for those interested in innovation and technology management.

Examining the full cycle from farm to fork, this book reviews the current status of green processing in the agriculture and agri-food sector, and provides strategies for enhancing the use of environmentally-friendly technologies for production and processing.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the innovation policy of Luxembourg, focusing on the role of government and includes concrete recommendations on how to improve policies that affect innovation and R&D performance.

This book describes a new organizational model for the creation of economic wealth through inter-firm collaborative innovation.

The slowdown of growth in Western industrialized nations in the last twenty years, along with the rise of Japan as a major economic and technological power (and enhanced technical sophistication of Taiwan, Korea, and other NICs) has led to what the authors believe to be a "techno-nationalism." This combines a strong belief that technological capabilities of a nation;s firms are a key source of their competitive process, with a belief that these capabilities are in a sense national, and can be built by national action. This book is about these national systems of technical innovation. The heart of the work contains studies of seventeen countries--from large market-oriented industrialized ones to several smaller high income ones, including a number of newly industrialized states as well. Clearly written, this work highlights institutions and mechanisms which support technical innovation, showing similarities, differences, and their sources across nations, making this work accessible to students as well as the scholars of innovation.