Amercan Journal of Operatons Research, 2012, 2, 242-246 do:10.4236/aor.2012.22028 Publshed Onlne June 2012 (http://www.scrp.org/ournal/aor) A Study on Mechansm of the Growth and Evoluton of Intellectual Property Value Chan: A Self-Organzaton Perspectve Xuehe Zhang, We Song School of Publc Affars, Unversty of Scence and Technology of Chna, Hefe, Chna Emal: zhangxhe@mal.ustc.edu.cn Receved March 20, 2012; revsed Aprl 21, 2012; accepted May 6, 2012 ABSTRACT In the rapd development of technology and knowledge-based economy aganst the background of the tmes, the IPR of enterprses partcpatng n the process of value creaton has been the key ssues n the busness world. The resultng growth n the value chan of IP s a complcated process of evoluton, and non-lnear dynamcs, and self-organzng system. Ths paper explores the ntellectual property value chan from ts condtons, mechansms and dynamcs as well as the nspraton for the enterprses. Keywords: IP Value Chan; Growth; Evoluton; Self-Organzaton 1. Introducton Snce the Harvard Busness School s Mchael Porter rased the value chan, whch has been wdely used n the management practce and made great gans [1]. Porter beleves the actvtes of the enterprses are made of the desgn, producton, sales and varous auxlary ones whch are value actvtes. Based on coordnaton and management, these actvtes are able to generate economc benefts and corporate compettve advantage [2]. But wth the rapd development of modern scence and technology and advent of knowledge-based economy era, the relance on natural resources and human resources nvestment as the manstay of the tradtonal value chan can not adapt to technology-based management and value creaton process. Innovaton and ndependent ntellectual property rghts have become a modern enterprse s core compettveness [3]. In the modern busness game competton rules, ntellectual property rghts have never been so mportant, therefore, Chna Premer Wen Jabao once sad: IPR wll be the focus between the nternatonal compettons n the future [4]. From the perspectve of ntellectual property rghts to research the value chan s to combne a seres of actvtes of enterprses and ntellectual property, from whch, through the conscous ntegraton, we can form IP value chan [5]. In ths paper, the busness actvtes are broken down nto four parts, respectvely strateges, research, R & D, producton and marketng. And the IP value chan drawn by the marketng s taken as the man lne n the enterprse s value creaton. In the varous actvtes of the value creaton process, ntellectual property s taken as the key factors to ntegrate the management and nnovaton, so enterprses can realze the value creaton and growth n ts varous actvtes. Through a large number of case studes of successful enterprses, we conclude that the IP value chan management can brng huge gans. For example, Mcrosoft, IBM, Google, Samsung, Toyota, as well as Chna enterprse Huawe, ZTE, and so on are all takng IP as ther lfelne n the value creaton. Through the actvtes of the entre enterprse ntellectual property management, they upgrade ther IP value chan, so they can obtan rapd development or mantan the leadershp n ther regon. Fgure 1 s the ntellectual property value chan model: It s easy to see through the chart that the value chan s towed by market. Through the ntegraton and mutual transformaton of the both nner and outer IP value chan, we can make the strategy and then coordnate research and development, producton and marketng actvtes, So that ntellectual property are able to fully penetrate nto the enterprse value creaton actvtes. The value creaton depends on the creaton, use, management and protecton of IP to acheve the upgrade, growth and value-added benefts. Apparently, the IP value chan s a complcated and nonlnear system. Wth the exchange of Materal, nformaton from the outer envronment and the cooperaton, competton wthn the nner chan, the system can acheve the contnuous upgrade and compettveness.
X. H. ZHANG, W. SONG 243 Fgure 1. IP value chan model. 2. Mechansm of Growth and Evoluton of IP Value Chan under the Dynamc of Self-Organzng System At present, the academc research of ntellectual property management focused on the statc external factors such as the legal, polcy as well as the management and protecton, but put very lttle attenton to the problem of that the ntellectual property rghts of enterprses partcpate n the value of self-creaton and growth [6]. In the face of such a complex gant system, we are not able to only through regulaton and control of external factors contrbute to the growth of ts evoluton, so we must look nto the nternal self-organzaton, self-catalyss of the causes of the system dynamc. The evoluton of any system n nature can be summed up n two forms. One s nterference by outsde forces to promote the evoluton of ts organzaton. For example when a computer makes progress, the man strength s man-made cause. The other evoluton pattern s of selforganzed manner. Haken defned the self-organzaton as: If a system was n a process of acqurng the spatal, tmely or functonal structure, there s no outsde nterference n specfc, we say the system s self-organzaton. Here Specfc refers to the knd of structure or functon of the outsde world s not mposed on the system, and the outsde world s non-specfc way n the role of the system [7]. For nstance, the growth of plants s a selforganzed growth mode. Impact of external factors such as water and ar can not drectly determne the plant s growth, but non-specfc way on the role of ths process. The evoluton of IP value chan s a nonlnear complex gant system whch clearly can not be regulated and controlled by man-made desgn. Its evoluton s a self-organzng process, so the role of external factors s only boundary condtons. 2.1. The Self-Organzng Condtons of IP Value Chan Accordng to the basc prncples of self-organzaton, n- tellectual property value chan as a complex system can self-organze ncludes [8]: 1) Non-lnear. If the system s a lnear system, t would be a fundamental rule out the possblty of ndependent evoluton, whch s also out of the queston snce the evoluton of growth. The non-lnear system s that the elements of the system n terms of quantty or nature have a lot of dfference and ndependence. Intellectual property value chan system cover all elements of the above characterstcs such as patents, trademarks, trade secrets, producton, R & D and marketng actvtes, as well as technology, captal, personnel, facltes, nformaton and so on. 2) Open system. If IP value chan want to buld a system from the dsorder to the orderly evoluton of the structure, wth the outsde world must contnue to have the materal, energy and nformaton exchange. From the chart1 of the property value chan model, we can clearly see the exchanges both n the external lnks wth the outsde world of nformaton, materals and energy and the external market through the export of products, technology and so on. 3) System away from equlbrum condtons. The varous components of the system must have dfferences whch are opposte to the Unform and sngle. The four parts of IP value chan have clear dfferences and ndependence, so t can be far away from equlbrum condtons. 4) Input to a certan threshold. Only wth a certan threshold, can IP value chan enter nto the nstablty so that t starts the self-organzng evoluton. The nputs for the growth of IP value chan from the outsde s talent, captal, management, as well as ntellectual property rghts and so on. 5) Fluctuaton. Fluctuaton s the flp-flop of IP value chan and unpredctable. Chaos Theory shows that the non-lnear system has the exstence of the nternal fluctuatons. The mcro-fluctuaton and the huge fluctuaton s nevtable nherent certanty n the process of the evoluton. Wthout t, the evoluton s able to occur.
244 X. H. ZHANG, W. SONG 2.2. The Evoluton Process of IP Value Chan Wth the above-mentoned fve basc condtons, the nonlnear system of ntellectual property value chan can be the self-organzed evoluton system. the evoluton and growth of Intellectual property value chan refers to that the external nput n the system reaches a certan threshold, nstablty of the system appears and the system begn to enter the self-restructurng process, after the end of the process entered a new phase of stablty, that s, the completon of an evoluton. Ths system repeatedly from the nstablty to stablty n the process of evoluton wll contnue n order to complete the evolutonary process of growth. The mportant pont of evoluton of the system s from the lnear stablty of the regon to the non-lnear regon of transton, when system s n nstablty, whch leads to the begnnng of evoluton. From the basc prospectve of non-lnear theory of thermodynamcs can be descrbed as: assumed that the evoluton of the system can be descrbed n the followng equaton, G( x1, x2,, xn, t) 1, 2,, n (1) X here stand for state varables of the system. In the stable branch of the dsorder thermodynamc, they are zero, that s, 0 0 0 x 0 1, x2,, xn (2) These nonlnear equatons are theoretcally dffcult to fnd accurate soluton, but through the steady state soluton, t can fnd out the pont from the stablty of the system to the nstablty of the branch. The basc structure s as follows: assumed that equaton have steady state soluton {x 0 }, and the soluton (x ) whch s lttle devaton from the steady state solutons can be wrtten n the form of lnear, that s, X X0 u 1, 2,, n (3) Of the equaton for Taylor seres expanson and takng only lnear: x x 0 u (4) x u x x x0 {x 0 } s due to the steady state soluton, t s dx0 0 G x 0 0 du u x x x0 The equaton s lnear dfferental equatons. And ts at specal soluton s e, a s the root of the respondng characterstc equaton. If the root a of characterstcs of the equaton are negatve, Steady state soluton (x 0 ) s stable. If t has a postve, n tme t, the soluton dvergent s s and the orgnal state soluton (x 0 ) s unstable. It can be launched to determne the stablty of the equaton that does not requre a specfc soluton, as long as you can know the postve and negatve. The mathematcal methods tell us when t s a system from the lnear stablty of the regon to the nstablty of the regonal non-lnear transton, f we can determne the nstable ponts of the system, so ths s the mportant condton for the self-organzng of the system. The stablty of the system can be easly found out, even we can push the system n the drecton of the stablty to the extreme, and then the system wll be able to reach the pont of nstablty. Process of evoluton of IP value chan can be expressed as the Fgure 2. We can see through the graphcs that the evolutonary process of the old value chan turnng nto the new s from the stablty to nstablty and then to stablty. When the nputs from the envronment reach the threshold, the (5) Fgure 2. Process of self-organzng.
X. H. ZHANG, W. SONG 245 system starts ts self-organzng process. Accordng to the dfferent dynamc such as gant fluctuaton, chaos, fractal, synergy, the system grow nto dfferent new value chans. Any system of evoluton, there are two man forms. One s from the low level to senor level. In ths way, evoluton of IP value chan can be expressed as the below: n the ntal stage, the enterprses fnd out the opportunty, and then they begn to produce the goods to meet wth the opportunty. At ths pont companes do not own ntellectual property, so they manly ntroduce the outer IP or technology to realze ther target. Wth the outer IP nputs reachng the threshold, the old IP value chan gets nto the nstable stage. And then the evoluton process begns, so a new chan comes nto beng. The other evoluton pattern s that at the same level of the organzaton, the evoluton s from the smple to a complex structure, and the system produces more functons and structures. In ths way, evoluton of IP value chan can be expressed as the below: the IP value chan system can produce some functons to make tself be nto self-organzng process. It can get the senor functons such as self-control, self-adaptve, autocatalytc and selfcontnung. 3. The Evoluton Results of IP Value Chan and the Implcatons for the Enterprses After the analyss of evoluton causes, we should ntroduce the results of the system and provde some mplcatons for the enterprses. 3.1. The Evoluton Results System growth and evoluton s by no means a smooth process. Sometmes, t may have some negatve aspects. The non-lnear system n essence s a dversely system, so the evoluton results s not same. Fgure 3 expresses the dversty of the evoluton process. In Fgure 3, before tme a, the system keep stable. From the a to b, the system n a stage of nstablty and evoluton process starts. After the tme b, the evoluton turns nto many dfferent curves. Fgure 3. Results of IP value chan. 3.2. The Implcatons for the Enterprses 1) Instablty pont s key factor n the evoluton of IP value chan. Ths means that the enterprses must do ther best to make these condtons appear. 2) An open system s necessary. The self-organzng theory tells us that the growth and evoluton of IP value chan system must get the captal, talent, IP, and nformaton and so on from the out world. 3) Competton and cooperaton s the dynamc of the system. The synergetc theory shows that competton and cooperaton are very mportant n any system s evoluton process. We must coordnate these factors wth the nner and outer chan to gve mpetus for the evoluton speed. 4) Dversty of evoluton tells us that facng an uncertan envronment; we must care about the results of the evoluton and make the results conform to our goals. 5) At last, a prospect of self-organzng s very mportant. Encounterng a non-lnear system, we can manly desgn the system s evoluton process and we only obey the rules of the system to make t grow. 4. Concluson Intellectual property management has become one of the leadng edge n management scence. Only Intellectual property rghts partcpatng n the creaton of value can we push the enterprses nto a rapd development. The evoluton of IP value chan s a complex process, so we must clearly understand the mechansm of the system s evoluton to make t develop. However, we ust begn to research ths problem, so there are many other questons watng for us to revolve. Namely, we do not completely know when and where the specfc nstablty pont appears. Ths needs us to do some emprcal analyss to dscover t. Besde, we don t clearly know the way how the envronment nfluences the system and what specfc factors account for the evoluton results. REFERENCES [1] M. E. Porter, Compettve Advantage, The Free Press, New York, 1985, pp. 11-15. [2] A. J. Rowe, R. O. Mason, K. E. Dckel, et al., Strategc Management: A Methodologcal Approach, 4th Edton, Addson-Wesley, Readng, 1994. [3] L. G. Branstetter, R. Fsman and C. Frtz Foley, Do Stronger Intellectual Property Rghts Increase Internatonal Technology Transfer? Emprcal Evdence from U. S. Frm-Level Panel Data, Quarterly Journal of Economcs, Vol. 121, No. 1, 2006, pp. 321-349. [4] J. B. Wen, The Importance of Intellectual Property Rghts, 2001. http://news.xnhuanet.com/fortune/2001-12/25/content_2 10965.htm
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