View source for Fauchart and Hippel (2006)

{{MainSource
|Source={{Source
|Name of Study=Fauchart and Hippel (2008)
|Author=Fauchart, E.; von Hippel, E.
|Title=Norms-Based Intellectual Property Systems: The Case of French Chefs
|Year=2008
|Full Citation=Fauchart, E., & Von Hippel, E. (2008). Norms-based intellectual property systems: The case of French chefs. Organization Science, 19(2), 187-201.
|Abstract=In this paper we propose that “norms-based” intellectual property systems exist today, and are an important complement to or substitute for law-based intellectual property systems. Norms-based IP systems, as we define them, operate entirely upon the basis of implicit social norms that are held in common by members of a given community. Within that community, they offer functionality “similar to” contemporary law-based IP systems with respect to both the nature of rights protected and the effectiveness of protection provided.

We document the existence of a norms-based IP system among a sample of accomplished French chefs. These chefs consider recipes they develop to be a very valuable form of intellectual property. At the same time, recipes are not a form of innovation that is effectively covered by law-based intellectual property systems. Via grounded research, we identify three strong implicit social norms related to the protection of recipe IP. Via quantitative research, we find that accomplished chefs enforce these norms, and apply them in ways that enhance their private economic returns from their recipe-related IP.

In our discussion, we compare the attributes of norms-based and law-based IP systems, arguing that each has different advantages and drawbacks. We also point out that the existence of norms-based IP systems means that many “information commons” may prove to be criss-crossed by norms-based fences, with community access controlled by community IP owners.
|Authentic Link=http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.1070.0314?journalCode=orsc
|Link=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=881781
|Reference=Allen (1983); Bernstein (1992); Rosamond (2002); Strandbourg (2008);
|Plain Text Proposition=Main results of study:

*Three major social norms consistently emerged in all our interviews with chefs. First, it is not honorable for chefs to exactly copy recipes developed by other chefs. Chefs were vehement about how very wrong it was to copy the recipe of a colleague. 

*The second important norm is that a chef who asks for and is given proprietary information by a colleague will not pass that information on to others without permission. This norm applies only to information that can be kept as a trade secret if not revealed. The requirement to not pass it on is important but is generally not stated when information is transferred in response to a request—it is implicit.

*The third norm involves the right to be acknowledged as the author of a recipe one has created. This applies to a recipe that one may observe at a creator’s restaurant or ask the developer about; it also applies when the innovator publicly reveals his recipe by, for example, publishing it in a cookbook or a magazine or describing it on TV. This norm offers a functionality offered by copyright and by law on the “moral rights” of authors and artists to have the paternity of their work acknowledged.

*The quantitative element of the research is designed to explore two matters: (1) whether the norms identified via grounded research are actually being enforced by chefs, and (2) whether chefs are enforcing the norms in a way likely to increase their private innovation-related profits. 

*IP holders were significantly more likely to deny secret IP to requesters they thought likely to violate each of the three social norms. We also found that this association was strongest when information of high value was being requested.

*The decision to provide or withhold IP is in the hands of the chef holding that IP and is related to his or her perceptions of the attributes of the information seeker, not to the actual attributes of that person.

*The authors found that chefs who selectively reveal recipe-related information to a colleague appear to be engaging in informal information trading rather than altruism. Chefs were more likely to present high-value recipe information in a public forum. In sharp contrast, they were significantly more likely to reveal low-value information privately to anyone who asked.

*When asked why they would reveal some of their recipes to the public at large, the chefs tended to agree with the motives listed that clearly involved direct personal gain in the form of increased restaurant sales and enhanced personal reputations. 

*Having documented that accomplished French chefs both espouse and enforce IP-related norms, the authors conclude that a norms-based IP system exists among French chefs.
|FundamentalIssue=1. Relationship between protection (subject matter/term/scope) and supply/economic development/growth/welfare,
|EvidenceBasedPolicy=D. Licensing and Business models (collecting societies; meta data; exchanges/hubs; windowing; crossborder availability),
|Discipline=A: General Economics and Teaching, A1: General Economics, A14: Sociology of Economics, K: Law and Economics, K1: Basic Areas of Law, K11: Property Law, O34: Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
|Intervention-Response=Policy implications:

*If norms-based IP systems are effective and common in today’s economies, clearly a great deal of research is needed to better understand them. We propose that it will be useful to study norms-based IP systems further and to learn how they can most usefully be applied to serve both innova- tors and society.

*In addition to research to determine the ubiquity and economic importance of norms-based IP systems, it would be very useful to understand the extent to which the norms that underlie such systems are similar.

*It will also be useful to more deeply explore whether one system tends to dominate the other when both are present.
|Description of Data=Data was collected in two phases: 

*First, the authors conducted grounded field research to identify important social norms dealing with recipe-related IP. 

*Second, they conducted a quantitative, questionnaire-based study to determine whether innovators deployed social norms to gain private economic advantage and whether violators of the norms were in fact sanctioned by accomplished haute cuisine chefs.

*The samples for both studies consisted of the chefs de cuisine in restaurants that had received “stars” and/or “forks” from the Michelin guide as a sign of culinary excellence. 

*In the first phase, requests for a meeting were made to 12 chefs, and 10 responded positively. Seven of these were interviewed face to face, and three were inter- viewed by email. Seven of the 10 chefs interviewed had Michelin stars. Three had no stars but were listed in the Michelin guide as chefs de cuisine in “good gastronomic restaurants.”

*In the second phase, questionnaires were sent to chefs who had been recognized in the Michelin guide. These included chefs holding stars, “rising stars,” and chefs holding from 2 to 5 forks. Of 485 questionnaires sent, 104 were returned, a response rate of 21.4%. Of these, 10 contained essentially no data and so were not included in our analyses. The 94 analyzable questionnaires were reasonably well distributed across the expertise categories in the Michelin guide: 7% came from two-star chefs, 62% from one- star chefs, 3% from rising stars, and 28% from chefs awarded forks.
|Data Year=Not stated.
|Data Type=Primary data
|Method of Collection=Qualitative Collection Methods, Survey Research (qualitative; e.g. consumer preferences), Semi-Structured Interview
|Method of Analysis=Quantitative Analysis Methods, Descriptive statistics (counting; means reporting; cross-tabulation), Qualitative Analysis Methods, Qualitative Coding / Sorting (e.g. of interview data)
|Industry=Creative, arts and entertainment;
|Country=France;
|Cross-country=No
|Comparative=No
|Government or policy=No
|Literature review=No
|Funded By=None stated;
|Method=Mixed methods, interviews, survey
|Data=survey with n=75 chefs, qualitative interviews
|Proposition=In the absence of protectability, French Chefs have developed a norms-based regulation system for recipes which resembles IP law
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|Dataset=
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