The role of IPR arrangements in the crowdsourcing for innovation contest: an empirical investigation of the Innocentive challenges

In this study, we identify three different Intellectual Property Right arrangements- strong IPR (acquiring an IP), weak IPR (licensing agreement) and flexible IPR. Integrating Property Rights Theory and the open innovation literature, we propose that specific challenge attributes affect the seekers organizations’ choice between alternative IPR arrangements and how this choice, in turn, affects the self-selection of external solvers into solving the problem. We collected multi-source, interview data with open innovation directors and a unique data set of 819 closed and awarded challenges broadcasted on InnoCentive platform from 2010 to 2016. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on open innovation and crowdsourcing literature by bringing a Property Right Theory perspective to different IPR arrangements in crowdsourcing contests, which traditionally has overwhelmingly been concerned with seeker firm’s search process in relation to governance structures.