THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF SIDE PROJECT OWNERSHIP AND IT INNOVATION: EVIDENCE FROM

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wu, Xi; Ren, Charlotte R.; Pang, Min-Seok
• 署名单位: Tilburg University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
• 刊物名称: MIS QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0276-7783
• DOI: 10.25300/MISQ/2025/18022
• 发表日期: 2026-06
• 页码: 785-800
• 关键词: Employee innovation at work; side project; IT Innovation; intellectual property; Alcatel v. Brown; INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY-RIGHTS; EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY; KNOWLEDGE; FIRMS; orientation; IMPACT; MODEL; work; LAW; PARTICIPATION

摘要

Engaging in side projects outside of regular employment has become a growing trend among knowledge for employees to learn new skills and foster creativity. However, the legal ownership of side projects remains uncertain, raising questions about how this affects employee innovation at their primary jobs, which we refer to as employee innovation at work. In this study, we leverage an exogenous change in the legal arrangement of side project ownership-the Alcatel v. Brown case-to investigate how firms' enhanced control over side projects influences employees' innovation performance at work. We find that in states where firms gained greater contractual authority to claim ownership of employees' side projects, the number of IT patents owned by firms decreased. However, paradoxically, the quality of these patents, as measured by the number of forward citations, improved following the legal change. Further analyses of the underlying mechanisms suggest that these contrasting findings likely stem from shifts in both employee innovation behaviors and firms' innovation strategies, post-Alcatel v. Brown. Our findings contribute to the information systems literature by highlighting the nuanced effects of side project ownership on IT innovation.