Who Owns Ideas? An Investigation of Employees’ Beliefs about the Legal Ownership of Ideas

Citation: David R. Hannah (2004/11/08) Who Owns Ideas? An Investigation of Employees’ Beliefs about the Legal Ownership of Ideas. Creativity and Innovation Management (RSS)
DOI (original publisher): 10.1111/j.0963-1690.2004.00311.x
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.1111/j.0963-1690.2004.00311.x
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.1111/j.0963-1690.2004.00311.x
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Who Owns Ideas? An Investigation of Employees’ Beliefs about the Legal Ownership of Ideas
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Summary

Interview employees of a small and a large technology firm in southwestern US concerning beliefs about whether employer or employee owns idea in case of work task, idea at work, and non-work task, not at work.

Findings (quote):

• Employees’ beliefs about who owns ideas are influenced by employees’ beliefs about the legal claim of employees to ideas, and the competing legal claim of employers.
  • the degree of employer involvement in the origins of ideas
  • the nature of the ideas,
  • employees’ definitions of job responsibilities
  • employees’ familiarity with formal procedures pertinent to ideas
• These variables act as competing mediators in a model predicting employees’ beliefs about who owns ideas.
• Each mediator is influenced by factors that are specific to each idea, which include the degree of employer involvement in the origins of ideas and the nature of the ideas; and by factors that are more general, including employees’ beliefs about their job responsibilities and their familiarity with pertinent organizational procedures.