University invention disclosure: balancing the optimal stage and type

Invention disclosure is a complex problem faced by many university faculty members. Existing studies have investigated related issues, but few researchers have considered disclosure from the perspectives of both disclosure stage (early or late) and disclosure type (university or firm). This paper seeks to address this gap by investigating the influence of economic benefit, reputation, competition and collaboration on invention disclosure. We build several theoretical models, finding that reputation and competition have opposite effects on university disclosure, whereas economic benefit and collaboration are positively related to firm disclosure. We also find these four influencing factors have close relationships with disclosure stage. The simulation results further illustrate that initial reputation and additional reputation have different impacts on disclosure stage. An increase in a faculty and firm’s capability incentivizes firm disclosure in the early stage, while the competitor’s capability has the opposite impact. However, entry cost relates negatively to the disclosure stage and to the multi-stage disclosure. This paper provides insights for faculty on invention disclosure, as well as implications for university management.