Entitlements and Intangible Assets

Abstract

The idea of entitlements offers a theoretical lens that establishes a connection between actors and assets. Entitlements to intangible assets may include market-based assets e.g. brands, channel relationships and reputations, as well as knowledge-based resources, e.g. intellectual property, know-how, or information. Some of these intangibles, e.g. knowledge or design, may be seen by actors as ‘non-rival goods’. Firms and individuals bring entitlements into their exchange relationships with others in various forms. In the Hohfeldian framework of entitlements as rights, privileges, powers and immunities, to have a right means that others have a corresponding duty. Nowadays, there are calls for an extension of our theoretical framework to incorporate the complexity of law and equity as institutional responses. Interestingly, scholarly work has started to expand the application of entitlements to justice, fairness, environmental goods, and capabilities. For example, community standards of fairness can be considered as entitlements in the market. Similarly, individuals and organizations may be entitled to and claim environmental goods or services that are instrumental to their well-being. This paper takes entitlements as intellectual lens to investigate the use of intangible assets in the information age and illustrates the theoretical analysis with empirical evidence of how organizations adapt and transform themselves.