Balanced score card implementation for IP rights management in a public research institution

Abstract

PurposeThere is a growing awareness of intellectual property (IP) rights in European public research institutes. Since 2008 a non‐binding recommendation of the European Commission has been, in effect, proposing a consistent policy for IP in research and development (R&D). While there is a broad consensus on the overall goal – achieving a higher competitiveness of European industry in the international market place – there are, however, conflicting expectations on the micro‐management: are technology transfer agencies to be considered as profit‐centers, cost‐centers, mediators or all of the above? This paper seeks to provide an answerDesign/methodology/approachThe Physikalisch‐Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is the national metrology institute of Germany with 1,900 employees and an annual budget of €145 million. It has established a micro‐management policy for IP rights, which is successfully fostering the development of modern instrumentation for metrology and may serve as an example for other public institutions as well. While it is obliged by law to operate as a regular market participant when licensing patents, there are additional conditions, some with the status of a law or a binding government decision as well.FindingsThe BSC approach, implemented at PTB, provides guidelines to reconcile seemingly conflicting requirements for a public entity while at the same time generating economic benefits in terms of additional income from licensing. In the authors' opinion this approach keeps costs at a reasonable level, fosters inventors' motivation and furnishes data for decisions for the technology transfer office as well as for the leadership of the institution.Originality/valueTo manage this conflict of goals the authors developed and implemented a balanced score card (BSC) system for IP management in order to optimize licensing income generation, cut costs, keep the inventor's motivation high and simultaneously realize macro‐economic technology transfer tasks. The BSC was originally introduced for the private sector by Norton and Kaplan in 1992, in response to a failure of purely monitoring financial indicators. The balanced score card considers economic and non‐economic factors, often denoted as “soft”. It is balanced with respect to result‐oriented indicators, like licensing income, and with respect to process‐oriented indicators, like the acceptance rate of inventions for patenting. And it tries to deduce from a trend of an indicator in the past a prediction of future development, associated with recommendations for actions to influence the ongoing process. The paper discusses the issues.

Intellectual property audit of an organization

“…Development of audit system for IPMS excellence by Liu and Chin () proposed an IPM excellence audit system that divided the complicated IPM practices into two parts as a list of enabling criteria and the IPM performance. Smandek, Barthel, Winkler, and Ulbig () suggested balanced score card implementation for IP rights management in a public research institution. Rastogi () captured codified IA.…”

O Balanced Scorecard Aplicado À Administração Pública Municipal: Um Estudo Na Prefeitura De Ibiúna, Estado De São Paulo

“…O Balanced Scorecard (BSC) é uma ferramenta estratégica amplamente usada nas várias organizações privadas (KAPLAN, 2012), cujo foco é a conciliação entre os objetivos aparentemente conflitantes em uma estratégia geral (SMANDEK et al, 2010)in effect, proposing a consistent policy for IP in research and development (R&D. Além de todo o conjunto de indicadores de desempenho financeiro, o BSC também oferece a mensuração de aspectos intangíveis (RAVAL; KANT; SHANKAR, 2019) bem como retrata a missão e a estratégia em objetivos e medidas, por meio de quatro perspectivas: financeira, do cliente, dos processos internos e do aprendizado e do crescimento (KAPLAN; NORTON, 1992). Como apontado por Agostino e Arnaboldi (2012), a importância do BSC reside em escolher quais as características e como avaliar o desempenho organizacional por meio dos indicadores-chave de desempenho (KPI's).…”

Quality Assurance in the Portuguese Census: The Contribution of the Balanced Scorecard

“…Nevertheless, the BSC has also been used for measuring performance other than the mainstream role of strategy management. Recent literature has shown BSC was used to measure the level of innovation in the metallurgy industry (Blacha and Brzóska 2016), measure and optimize nursing performance (Jeffs et al 2011), propose a suitable framework for assessing hospital performance (Matos and Ramos 2009;Trotta et al 2012), provide a sustainable performance assessment tool for forensic laboratories (Houck et al 2012), develop a flexible framework to be applied to waste utilities (Guimarães, Simões, and Marques 2010), and mediate intellectual property rights conflicts (Smandek et al 2010). Moreover, the BSC was also used as a tool for risk management (Oliveira 2014).…”