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Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
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Emily Bacon
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Pages: 1 - 18
Swansea University Authors:
David Pickernell , Emily Bacon
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© 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/09537325.2025.2489155
Abstract
Trade Secrets (TS) constitute important elements in intellectual property (IP) portfolios, securing competitive advantage by preserving critical innovations and other confidential data. Identifying TS, however, creates numerous challenges, including a lack of established processes of TS identificati...
| Published in: | Technology Analysis & Strategic Management |
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| ISSN: | 0953-7325 1465-3990 |
| Published: |
Informa UK Limited
2025
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69190 |
| Abstract: |
Trade Secrets (TS) constitute important elements in intellectual property (IP) portfolios, securing competitive advantage by preserving critical innovations and other confidential data. Identifying TS, however, creates numerous challenges, including a lack of established processes of TS identification at the organisational level in the UK and the absence of comprehensive academic studies. This study, therefore, aims to define a methodological process for TS identification within UK organisations. Leveraging a sequential qualitative mixed-method approach grounded in Knowledge Management (KM) theory, this research analyses 52 legal cases on TS misappropriation and 12 interviews with industry professionals. Findings highlight challenges in TS identification, introducing a four-step UVRIP framework as a strategic tool for organisations to assess informational assets based on usefulness, value, rarity, imitability and protection, enriching discourse on TS protection and management, IP audit processes and KM theory and offering theoretical and practical contributions. |
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| Keywords: |
Trade secret management; trade secret identification; trade secret identification process; KM theory |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
1 |
| End Page: |
18 |