Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Experience And Signaling Value In Technology Licensing Contract Payment Structures, Reddi Kotha, Pascale Crama, Phillip H. Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Whencommercializing technology, the lack of proven results and a reluctance toinvest upfront resources hamper efforts by firms to work jointly with inventorsto bring new discoveries to market. An effective contract payment structure – amix of upfront and royalty payments – can help overcome these hurdles. Weconduct our research in university technology licensing, where licensingmanagers act as intermediaries to unite inventors and licensee firms. Rather than leveraging their experience to bargainfor maximum payments, highly experienced managers offer contractual paymentstructures that trade lower upfront payments for higher royalty payments inorder to signal value. The signal instills confidence in the value of the …