The dynamics of intellectual property rights for trust, knowledge sharing and innovation in project teams

Abstract The research question is: How can intellectual property rights (IPRs) influence trust, attitudes, commitment, knowledge sharing, and innovation in inter-organisational project teams? The four strategically selected team cases include eight global knowledge-intensive industrial oil service companies in Norway. The methodology included 24 in-depth interviews done in 2016. The study finds that formal intellectual property rights are key to building up and keeping trust in the team and also for building up the right attitudes within the team. The IPRs increased the innovativeness in the team and incremental innovations. The IPRs fostered a unique knowledge sharing in these four teams enabling them to work towards innovative solutions and delivering in time. Formal IPŔs foster informal trust and expertise sharing and by that also the inter- organizational cooperation. The confidence and knowledge sharing strengthen the possibility for future collaboration and innovations both on an individual level and on a corporate level. The theoretical implication of our findings is that IPRs increase the trust, commitment, and attitudes within the team providing knowledge sharing and innovativeness for improved solutions and results. IPRs are positive for collaboration, and they are complementary governance mechanisms. The practical implication is that IPRs must be defined and accepted before the corporations start up the inter-organizational teamwork. The contract typology should in the start up be sensitizing giving directions and security and in the end definitive.