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Understanding attitudes towards intellectual property from the perspective of design professionals

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Abstract

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are meant to protect and promote creativity and innovation. Regardless of the increasing role of IPR in advancing innovations, the corresponding IPR system in the creative industries is still underdeveloped and facing many challenges, especially in developing countries such as China. For example, designers may wittingly or unwittingly violate IP in their design activities, and piracy is a grave concern for the creative industries in China, which may lead to severe revenue drains. To facilitate the development of an IPR system in the creative industries in China, it is essential first to understand what factors may determine the attitudes of design professionals towards IPR in China. A qualitative contextual interview study, conducted with 49 Chinese designers and design managers, revealed different levels of IPR awareness (e.g. what constitutes IPR and how IPR can be protected), and the perceived effectiveness of IPR law enforcement (i.e. weak law enforcement vs vigorous law enforcement), and how different ethical beliefs and ethical climates can have a distinctive impact on attitudes towards IPR. Moreover, our study found that Chinese design professionals exhibit different motivations for their design work. Such motives in design can stimulate different levels of IPR awareness, and these could have an indirect impact on attitudes towards IPR. Based on these findings, a theoretical model is proposed, which incorporates several factors identified from the contextual interview study. Our theoretical model can serve as a baseline model and provide theoretical foundations for future empirical studies on people’s attitudes towards IPR.

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Acknowledgements

This work is an integral part of a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to investigate global IP challenges and opportunities for the creative and technical industries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

    Xu Sun & Pinyan Tang

  2. Guizhou Normal University, Guizhou, China

    Xiaosong Zhou

  3. Nottingham University Business School China, Ningbo, China

    Qingfeng Wang

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Effie Lai-Chong Law

  5. Human Factors Research Group, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK

    Sue Cobb

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  1. Xu Sun
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  2. Xiaosong Zhou
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  3. Qingfeng Wang
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  5. Effie Lai-Chong Law
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  6. Sue Cobb
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Correspondence to Xiaosong Zhou.

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Sun, X., Zhou, X., Wang, Q. et al. Understanding attitudes towards intellectual property from the perspective of design professionals. Electron Commer Res 21, 521–543 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-019-09378-z

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