Title
Licensing Contracts: Control Rights, Options, and Timing.
Abstract
Research and development (R&D) collaborations, common in high-tech industries, are challenging to manage because of technical and market risks as well as incentive problems. We investigate how control rights, options, payment terms, and timing allow the innovator to capture maximum value from its R&D collaborations with a marketer. Our study reveals a counterintuitive result; the innovator may, under certain conditions, prefer to grant launch control rights or buyout options to the marketer despite the fact that both terms restrict its downstream actions. We demonstrate that a menu of contracts is not necessary to address the adverse selection problem because the menu can be replicated by a single option contract. We show that timing, through renegotiation or delayed contracting, as well as the careful allocation of control rights and options can have a significant influence on the value of collaborative R&D. We provide recommendations on the optimal contract structure and timing based on two project characteristics, novelty of the R&D process and market-potential variability.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1287/mnsc.2015.2386
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
research and development,innovation,contract design,moral hazard
Economics,Launch control,Innovator,Actuarial science,Adverse selection,Microeconomics,Moral hazard,Contract management,Research development,restrict,Option contract
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
63.0
4
0025-1909
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
8
0.55
4
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Pascale Crama1564.55
Bert De Reyck254746.23
niyazi taneri380.55