JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Abstract

The phenomenon of the ability to capture the value and profit more from innovation for the inventor itself has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners. Here, the basic premise of the matter is that innovation becomes a main competitive element for a potential innovator only if s/he is able to appropriate benefits from innovation. The studies show that innovation itself not necessary brings a lot of advantages to the business, rather appropriability or appropriation strategies of innovation are value creators to the business. It was found that different appropriation strategies bring different results to the business. Proper understanding of the use of appropriability mechanisms and appropriation strategies will help to save innovation from imitation and same time will save resources of the company.

This study aims to deepen the understanding of the dynamic use of appropriation strategies and appropriability mechanisms. For this research work, the Coca-Cola company has been chosen as an example of successful and innovative business. To implement analysis three elements of the Coca-Cola product have been chosen Merchandise 7x, the bottle of Coca-Cola drink, and a variety of drinks. The data was collected from the various sources with time interval starting from the date of establishment of the company, ending the year 2020.

The finding is that the Coca-Cola company was able to protect its own main innovation from imitation for more than 130 years. To succeed in the protection of the innovation various appropriation strategies and appropriability mechanisms were adapted. Also, to protect main innovation complementary assets such as packaging and variety of drinks were chosen. Moreover, the complementary assets were also protected from imitation. The main finding is that appropriation strategies and appropriability mechanisms for the same element were changed during time according to the internal and external changes of the company. This finding is consistent with previous literature suggesting that the use of appropriability mechanisms or appropriation strategies is changing with the evolution of enterprises.