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This paper focuses on the strategic inclusion of reciprocity clauses in the licensing commitments disclosed by firms claiming standard essential patents (SEPs) in the telecom industry. We highlight the main cost and benefit of using these clauses for SEPs holders, namely, a possible deterrence effect for potential standard users on the one hand, and a legal instrument to prevent holdup and negotiate cross-licenses with other SEPs owners on the other hand.

We formulate general hypotheses explaining firms’ disclosure strategies with respect to reciprocity clauses, and use an original dataset of 19,601 patent disclosures in 12 different ETSI (European Telecommunications Standard Institute) projects (including UMTS, GSM, 3GPP, or GPRS) to test them empirically.

Our econometric results first confirm our predictions that reciprocity clauses are used as an insurance mechanism in technologically complex environments. They are more frequently included in patent disclosures when the ownership of SEPs at the project level is more fragmented. We also find that firms do not claim reciprocity clauses before having already declared a significant number of non-reciprocal SEPs in the same project, which suggests a deterrence effect on standard users that must be balanced by a strong patent position.

Our findings highlight a trade-off for the SEPs holder to insert a reciprocity clause. There is both a cost and a benefit of adding this clause to the patent licensing commitment. Contrary to the usual literature on the subject, we do not analyze the general patenting strategies but the conducts on the licensing terms.

The purpose of this paper is to study brand embedded licensing (technology licensing and brand licensing combined) and its theoretical difference from standard licensing (technology licensing only). The following research questions are asked: What makes embedded licensing theoretically different from standard licensing, and what determines a licensor's decision to select brand embedded licensing over standard licensing?

This paper compares brand embedded licensing to standard licensing and argues that brand embedded licensing is a quasi‐hierarchical organizational structure, while standard licensing is a market‐based structure. Brand embeddedness in licensing serves as a credible commitment from the licensor and induces the licensee to invest sufficiently in complementary assets. Drawing on the transaction cost perspective, the determinants of embedded licensing are examined.

Embedded licensing is determined by both the licensee's characteristics and the licensor's brand characteristics. The licensor is more likely to utilize embedded licensing or the licensee is more willing to demand embedded licensing when: the licensee's specific complementary investment is high; the licensee's complementary capacity is high; the market entry is at a late stage; the licensor uses separate branding; the extent of product differentiation is high; and the stage of brand globalization is advanced. A strong intellectual property rights regime and a fast pace of technology change enhance the effects of these six determining factors on the licensor's selection of embedded licensing.

This paper challenges the classical view that licensing is a market‐based relationship by revealing that embedded licensing is a quasi‐hierarchical organizational structure.

The International Marketing of Technology: An Interaction Perspective More and more companies have resorted to a wide diversity of international operation forms in order to enter and develop foreign markets. This diversity has been one of the features of international marketing over the past decade. Even though it appears that the entry mode to internationalization is still via simple exporting, with perhaps a shift to foreign investment later on, alternative modes, with various patterns of sequential development have become stronger features of international business operations (Luostarinen, 1979). The variety has, as yet, not been adequately reflected in official statistics of trade, investment and service flows between countries.

With the development of the Chinese economy and its gradually opened market, there are more and more chances for foreign business entities who want to expand their businesses in China. The insurance market is one the most attractive. However, getting the authorization for their insurance business is one problem they encounter. The purpose of this paper is to provide some different views about Chinese insurance license regulations for those who want to start their business in China.

Different from the office papers or Regulations of China, this paper is based on research interviews carried out in China (mainly in Beijing and Shanghai). The empirical methodology reveals the actual ideas and attitudes about Chinese insurance license regulations. Except that, the comparative about some issues have been carried on between Chinese insurance companies and foreign insurance companies.

The research interview reveals that it is not difficult for foreign insurers to meet the requirements of clauses of regulations. However, the attitude of Chinese insurance regulators and the culture background, and even the political opinions of the official leaders, have played a very important role in the decision of the regulatory body.

Owing to the limitation of funds and time for this interview research, the interviews were carried out mainly in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzheng. Even most of head offices of insurance companies located in these cities, however, it cannot be said these views represented the 100 percent true opinions.

These findings cannot be said in public, while everyone can understand it. That is the value of this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to make a critical review of the introduction of first third generation (3G) mobile services and the evolution of market structure. It aims to look for reasons for the poor market performance of 3G.

The study analyses market data from 17 Western European countries and tests propositions with statistical methods.

The paper finds that there is evidence in support of to the “overbidding” hypothesis, i.e. license fees determined in auctions were higher than ultimately compatible with the originally envisaged market structure based on the n+1 rule. 3G markets therefore are more concentrated than 2G markets. The correct design of market structure is crucial for accelerating the speed of introduction of 3G services: the speed increases with the number of licenses granted, but decreases with the number of idle licenses. Auctions are not superior to other methods with respect to speed of innovation.

This is the first study of this kind and should be read by academics or practitioners dealing with regulation, spectrum licensing and technology forecasting.

The article explores how servitization influences firms' foreign market entry mode decisions. This relationship is researched under the contingent effect of macroenvironmental factors in the host country, namely, market attractiveness, institutional environment and national culture differences between the home and host country.

The study employs a conceptual framework typology that interrelates, contextualizes and conceptualizes extant knowledge to develop explicit propositions.

Based on the extant literature, using a 2 × 2 matrix, the authors delineate the influence of two dimensions of servitization on entry mode decisions: customer relationship focus and digitalization focus. They conceptualize that relationship management and digitalization-based servitization have an antagonistic effect on the need for entry mode resource commitments, and macroenvironmental factors' favorability moderates this tension.

The study extends and incorporates the servitization literature into the context of international marketing by exploring the combined effect of the two most significant dimensions of servitization, i.e. investment in customer relations versus investment in digitalization on entry mode, thus delivering valuable new insights and perspectives, as well as explicit propositions toward empirical testing.

The authors’ framework increases foreign market managers' awareness of how servitization drives entry mode decisions of firms in international markets. Also, the framework explicates how the host country's market attractiveness, institutional environment and difference with the home country's national culture tangibly influence the relationship.

The study provides novel insights into the implications of servitization on international marketing, particularly regarding foreign market entry mode. The study also elucidates the combined effect of two servitization dimensions, i.e. customer relations and digitalization – a critical research area in which the literature is scant.

Drawing on transaction cost economics, the authors conceptualise brand licensing as a form of alliance. Its performance may be affected by a licensee’s potential opportunism resulting from an imbalance of specific investments in brand-building prior to signing the licensing agreement. From the licensor’s perspective, brand licensing represents a trade-off between brand protection and additional revenues. This study aims to examine how this trade-off shapes licensors’ evaluations of the attractiveness of brand licensing opportunities.

In a vignette study, 121 brand licensing professionals evaluated the attractiveness of up to eight hypothetical brand licensing opportunities with different levels of risk and profitability.

From a licensor’s perspective, high brand quality and distribution risks decrease the attractiveness of a licensing opportunity, although the latter risks are more pronounced. High potential profitability has a positive and significant effect on attractiveness.

The risks outlined in this study refer to licensee behaviour. The licensor may also behave opportunistically. The authors encourage research designs that enable a dyadic evaluation of licensing opportunities because a comparison of a licensor’s and a licensee’s assessments of the same scenario would be illuminating.

The findings enable the development of an evaluation template that directs brand owners’ attention to the risks and gains of brand licensing opportunities. It supports licensors in choosing the “best” opportunity.

This study identifies risks emanating from a licensee’s potential opportunism from a licensor’s perspective. It juxtaposes these risks with the potential profitability of brand licensing opportunities. It is thus one of the first studies to address a licensor’s decision-making trade-offs in a large-scale empirical setting.

This paper aims to analyze what Samarco and Brazilian magazines speak and say about Mariana’s environmental crime. Discover their doxa in this subject. Interpret the speakings, sayings and doxas through the theories of the treadmills of production, crime and law.

It is a qualitative and documental research and a narrative analysis. Regarding the documents: 45 were from public authorities, 14 from Samarco Mineração S.A. and 73 from Brazilian magazines. Theoretically, the authors resorted to Bourdieusian sociology (speaking, saying and doxa) and the treadmills of production, crime and law theories.

Samarco: speaking – mission statements; saying – detailed information and economic and financial concerns; doxa – assistance discourse. Brazilian magazines: speaking – external agents; saying – agreements; doxa – attribution, aggravations, historical facts, impacts and protests.

The absence of discussions that addressed this fatality, with its respective consequences, from an agenda that exposed and denounced how it exacerbated race, class and gender inequalities.

Regarding Mariana’s environmental crime: Samarco Mineração S.A. speaks and says through the treadmill of production theory and supports its doxa through the treadmill of crime theory, and Brazilian magazines speak and say through the treadmill of law theory and support their doxa through the treadmill of crime theory.

To provoke reflections on the relationship between the mining companies and the communities where they settle to develop their productive activities.

Concerning environmental crime in perspective, submit it to a theoretical interpretation based on sociological references, approach it in a debate linked to environmental criminology, and describe it through narratives exposed by the guilty company and by Brazilian magazines with high circulation.

Here's a guide to valuing, pricing, and negotiating payment arrangements for software—whether you're the licensor or licensee.

The purpose of this paper is to take a strategic perspective on how MNEs in the retail sector decide to enter a new market. Drawing on transaction cost theory, the contingency approach and resource-based theory, the implications of the interplay between global strategy, cultural distance and entry mode strategies are examined by means of an analysis of Carrefour’s global expansion.

To account for the shortcomings of prior research, a hypothesis in the relationship between entry modes and cultural distance is tested empirically using a sample of 44 foreign market entries by Carrefour over the 40 last years. The paper uses a quantitative approach, i.e., logistic regressions. To measure cultural distance, the authors rely on the GLOBE dimensions and the Kogut-Singh Index.

The findings suggest a positive relationship between a resource commitment, entry mode strategy and cultural distance for Carrefour. However, these findings are contrary to the mainstream argument that high cultural distance is related to entry strategies based on relatively low resource commitment. The authors explain these findings by integrating a cultural distance perspective with Carrefour’s overall global expansion strategy.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability.

The paper provides insights into why prior research on cultural distance and entry modes has yielded mixed results. From a strategic viewpoint, the paper stresses the particularities of the retail sector and how retailers try to account for cultural distance in their entry mode decisions.

By focussing on a single company instead of a meta-analysis, the analysis demonstrates how the search for strategic consistency and the particularities of the retail sector reverse a well-investigated theoretical assumption. The main originality of the paper is that it shows the implications of the interplay between cultural distance and entry mode as being part of the retail firm’s overall global expansion strategy.