Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK

Ozcan, Oleksandra; Pickernell, David; Bacon, Emily

doi:10.1080/09537325.2025.2489155

Journal article 509 views 283 downloads

Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK

Oleksandra Ozcan, David Pickernell

, Emily Bacon

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Pages: 1 - 18

Swansea University Authors: David Pickernell , Emily Bacon

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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...

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Published in:	Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
ISSN:	0953-7325 1465-3990
Published:	Informa UK Limited 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69190

first_indexed	2025-03-31T15:02:46Z
last_indexed	2025-08-01T14:31:21Z
id	cronfa69190
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spelling	2025-07-31T17:28:51.4056619 v2 69190 2025-03-31 Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK 913bd73da00d7df4f5038f6f144b235e 0000-0003-0912-095X David Pickernell David Pickernell true false a14bd1b9041528e38772df1b50a59e3b 0000-0001-9933-3902 Emily Bacon Emily Bacon true false 2025-03-31 CBAE 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. Journal Article Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 0 1 18 Informa UK Limited 0953-7325 1465-3990 Trade secret management; trade secret identification; trade secret identification process; KM theory 10 4 2025 2025-04-10 10.1080/09537325.2025.2489155 COLLEGE NANME Management School COLLEGE CODE CBAE Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee 2025-07-31T17:28:51.4056619 2025-03-31T15:58:00.1967807 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Management - Business Management Oleksandra Ozcan 1 David Pickernell 0000-0003-0912-095X 2 Emily Bacon 0000-0001-9933-3902 3 69190__34125__b1ab4adeaee1463d9a959bb44ed4d145.pdf 69190.VoR.pdf 2025-04-28T12:07:39.8891839 Output 1084803 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
title	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
spellingShingle	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK David Pickernell Emily Bacon
title_short	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
title_full	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
title_fullStr	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
title_full_unstemmed	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
title_sort	Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK
author_id_str_mv	913bd73da00d7df4f5038f6f144b235e a14bd1b9041528e38772df1b50a59e3b
author_id_fullname_str_mv	913bd73da00d7df4f5038f6f144b235e_*_David Pickernell a14bd1b9041528e38772df1b50a59e3b_*_Emily Bacon
author	David Pickernell Emily Bacon
author2	Oleksandra Ozcan David Pickernell Emily Bacon
format	Journal article
container_title	Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
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publishDate	2025
institution	Swansea University
issn	0953-7325 1465-3990
doi_str_mv	10.1080/09537325.2025.2489155
publisher	Informa UK Limited
college_str	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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department_str	School of Management - Business Management{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Management - Business Management
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description	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.
published_date	2025-04-10T14:15:06Z
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Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK

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