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Intellectual Property in SMEs – Creation, Protection, and Utilization of Intellectual and Creative Capital

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 3565

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Engineering Science, LUT-University, Lappeenranta, Finland
Interests: product and service platforms; patent research; machine learning

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Guest Editor Assistant
School of Engineering Science, LUT-University, Lappeenranta, Finland
Interests: intellectual property; technology management; entrepreneurship

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are glad to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue of the journal Sustainability focusing on “Intellectual property in SMEs: creation, protection and utilization of intellectual and creative capital”. We would be honored to receive your input on this important topic. 

Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) are important drivers in the functioning and modernization of economies and industries. SMEs represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide (source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/smefinance). They are highly important contributors to job creation and the economic development in all nations and economic regions. 

The SMEs creating intellectual and creative capital, or with the potential to create them, are most important for the advancement of innovations. However, large companies seem much more successful in prosecuting their intellectual property rights, whether patenting trademarks, design rights, or copyrights. It is often thought that this is due to the SMEs’ lack of financial resources, IPR awareness, and skills. 

If this is truly the case we may ask what are the effects on the companies, inventors and society. The full view of this phenomenon and its effects remains highly obscured with plenty of room for new research. The changing landscape brings along new challenges, such as climate change, resource scarcity, digitalization, and artificial intelligence, to mention but a few.  

We encourage you to view these topics with an open mind and provide the scientific community with new insights. 

The scope and purpose of this Special Issue of Sustainability is to discuss intellectual and creative capital in SME companies ranging from its creation and protection to its efficient utilization. By submitting your research, you will contribute to the existing literature in technology management, entrepreneurship and intellectual property management in SMEs and societies. 

Prof. Dr. Tuomo Kässi
Guest Editor

Juhani Talvela
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • intellectual property (IP)
  • IPR
  • creation
  • business
  • innovation
  • SME

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 339 KiB  
Article
Intellectual Capital and Financial Performance of Chinese Manufacturing SMEs: An Analysis from the Perspective of Different Industry Types
by Lujing Liu, Jiyue Zhang, Jian Xu and Yiqun Wang
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10657; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710657 - 26 Aug 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3141
Abstract
In the knowledge era, intellectual capital (IC) has been recognized as the determinant of firm performance. The main goal of the current study is to analyze the relationship between IC and its elements and financial performance of Chinese manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises [...] Read more.
In the knowledge era, intellectual capital (IC) has been recognized as the determinant of firm performance. The main goal of the current study is to analyze the relationship between IC and its elements and financial performance of Chinese manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We also examine whether industry type has an impact on this relationship. This study uses the data of 588 Chinese listed SMEs in the manufacturing industry between 2015 and 2020 and employs the modified value-added intellectual coefficient (MVAIC) model to assess IC. The results show that IC improves SMEs’ financial performance, and physical and human capitals are the main contributor. In addition, the impact of IC and its elements on the financial performance of Chinese manufacturing SMEs is different in different types of industries. Specifically, capital-intensive SMEs have a greater impact of IC on financial performance than labor- and technology-intensive SMEs; labor-intensive SMEs have a higher efficiency of physical capital, while technology-intensive SMEs have higher human capital efficiency. The findings could help SMEs’ managers improve corporate performance by the effective utilization of their IC. Full article
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