Coopetition and technology licensing partner selection

Technology licensing involves the simultaneous competition and collaboration between the partnering organi-zations ("coopetition"). This paper investigates resource-based, market-based, and imitation-based motives in technology licensing partner selection. Using the theoretical foundations of these diverse motives, we identify drivers related to whether firms license-in technologies from science-based organizations (i.e., universities, government, and research institutes) and competitors. Using 307 patent licenses, we found that technological similarity has differing impacts on the choice of science-based organizations and competitors. Our results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between technological similarity and choice of competitors, while a U-shaped relationship exists between technological similarity and choice of science-based organizations. We also find that when there are a large number of product-market entries, firms tend to license technologies from competitors. These results confirm that the drivers of technology licensing partner selection vary depending on firms' diverse motivations.