BUSN20019 Project Plan: Digital Proficiency and Brand Value

This project plan, created for the BUSN20019 course, examines the relationship between digital proficiency and brand value within the luxury retail sector. The plan begins with a clear statement of the field of research, highlighting the relevance of retail digitisation for marketing professionals. It identifies readily accessible secondary data sources, including reports from Contactlab and Millward Brown, to analyze digital competitive maps and brand value of luxury brands. The research question (RQ) explores how luxury brands' digital proficiency affects their brand value. The plan outlines search terms for Google Scholar to find relevant literature, and includes a merged summary of three peer-reviewed articles. The project also provides a Gantt chart schedule for the project. This plan serves as a guide for conducting research on the impact of digital strategies on the success of luxury brands.

Running head: IPR MANAGEMENT IN TOP IT FIRMS
Importance of IPR Management in MNC ICT Firms
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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IPR MANAGEMENT IN TOP IT FIRMS
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Preliminary literature review:..........................................................................................................2
Intellectual property rights or IPR:..............................................................................................3
Intellectual property rights and global leadership:......................................................................4
Focussed research aim:....................................................................................................................7
Research question:...........................................................................................................................8
Research plan including proposed method of data collection and data analysis:............................8
Research plan:..............................................................................................................................8
Proposed method of data collection:............................................................................................8
Data analysis:...............................................................................................................................9
Gantt chart schedule:.......................................................................................................................9
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
References:....................................................................................................................................10
Weblinks:.......................................................................................................................................11

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IPR MANAGEMENT IN TOP IT FIRMS
Introduction:
Aggressive management of intellectual property right (IPR) has emerged empirical to
global information and communication technology (ICT) firms in maintaining global leadership.
International ICT firms manage their IPR aggressively which adds to the asset values. These ICT
companies invest immense capital towards developing their products which enable them to
dominate the market. Thus, it becomes extremely important for the companies to acquire IPRs
for these products to prevent other companies from using their technology and taking undue
advantage. The engineers which these companies employ play immense role in developing
products which attribute competitive to these ICT firms. The aim of the research would be to
delve to the importance of IPR management in global ICT companies taking Apple Inc. as the
crux of the research. Apple Inc. is the largest information technology in the world in terms of
revenue and is based in the US. The company is the owner and marketer of iPhone range of
smart phones which own leading position in the world (Apple.com, 2019). The company face
product duplication threats from smaller smart phone companies and even from multinational
companies. This competitive threat which Apple faces has made the company protect its branded
products by acquiring IPRs in order to retain its global position.
Preliminary literature review:
There have been extensive research about the importance of IPR in multinational ICT
firms like Apple Inc. The following section would delve into different aspects of IPR in
maintaining competitive advantage of Apple Inc. The section would be divided into two
divisions which would explore the findings from the secondary analysis. The first section would
delve into the concept of IPR and why its management is important for global ICT companies
like Apple Inc. The term IPR as defined by Gao (2015) refers to intangible items like designs,

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brands and ideas which firms develop or acquires to use in their own business processes. Lee and
Pilkington (2017) in this respect mention that IPR management plays a very significant role in
the marketing of the companies like Apple Inc. The section would ultimately seek to answer the
research question which would follow the section.
Intellectual property rights or IPR:
Song, Yu and Lu (2017) define the term intellectual property rights or IPRs as the
exclusive rights which companies obtain legally to use the designs, formulae and other attributes
developed by them. Gao (2015) on the other hand defines the term IPR as the exclusive rights
which companies gain to use the brands and subsidiaries which they acquire for the purpose of
their business operations. Thus, an analysis of these two definitions shows that intellectual
property rights refers to both assets developed by companies and the assets like brands as well as
subsidiaries acquired by them. Fromer (2015) sheds light on one of the important aspects of IPR-
law. The author clearly mentions in the very introductory section that the IPR laws prevent the
third party from using the trademarks, copyrights and patents illegally without written consent of
the firms owning them. Most of the countries have enacted IPR laws which protect the exclusive
rights of the companies owning them to use of business operations and prevent other firms taking
advantage of the IPRs without consent of the former. The IPRs are protected by the federal law
in the United States (Uspto.gov, 2019). Jarrett (2018) shed light on the second important aspect
of IPR, accounting aspect. He mentions that IPRs are intangible assets and are thus shown under
assets in the balance sheet. An analysis of the discussion clearly shows that the IPRs have both
legal and accounting significance to companies owning them. Thus, it is from the discussion that
efficient management of IPR is necessary to third party firms do not apply the intangible assets

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for their business operations and the companies actually owning them are able to use them to
generate business.
As far as Apple Inc. is concerned, the company owns several IPRs which also include
products like iPhone, its flagship product. The statement is evident from the high value of IPRs
the company holds as shown in its balance sheet. The except of balance sheet for the year 2017
shows that the company held intangible assets worth U$ 2298 million for the period. Thus, its is
evident that management of IPR plays important role in business generation of the multinational
companies like Apple Inc.
Figure 1. Balance sheet of Apple showing IPR
(Source: Apple.com, 2019)
Intellectual property rights and global leadership:
Intellectual property rights enable firms to gain their market positions in the market. Lee
and Pilkington (2017) mention in this respect mention that global ICT use their IPR to gain

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marketing rights to market their products. De Vries et al. (2017) opine in this respect that
customers feel associated to brands which are owned specific companies. Gao (2015) can be
reiterated in this respect to point that brands are also protected by IPRs. It can also be pointed out
that customers consider high-end brands as evidences of superior product quality. Cho, Yoon and
Kim (2016) shed light on the fact that customers due to their perception interrelatedness between
high-end brands and product quality superiority are ready to spend more money to buy high-
ended branded products. This allows the companies owning the IPRs like brands to market these
products at high prices in the market and generate high revenue. Thus, in this respect it can be
pointed out the holding and managing IPRs enable the companies market products bearing those
IPRs at high prices which enable them to generate high revenue and pay high dividends to
shareholders. This enables them to attract higher amount of capital from the securities market.
They companies are also able to able to enter into open innovations with more research
laboratories to bring out more high-end products (Purves, Hua & Rutherford, 2019). Thus, it is
evident from the discussion that holding and managing big brands enable ICT companies to gain
leadership in the global markets. Thus, in other words IPR attributes companies with global
leadership.
As far as Apple Inc. is concerned the company dominates the global information and
communication technology by the virtue of the IPRs it holds. This is evident from the statistics
showing net income margin of Apple Inc. and its nearest competitor, Samsung Electronic
Limited. The report published in the Forbes clearly mentioned that Samsung holds 27 percent of
smart phone market and is seconded by Apple with 24 percent market share. The article also
mentions that the three Chinese smart phone manufacturers namely, Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei
together occupy the third global position in the global smart phone market. It means that it has

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become empirical for Apple to use its IPRs more aggressively to retain its existing consumers
and attract new customers.
Figure 2.Net Income Margin: Apple vs Samsung
(Source: Mourdoukoutas, 2019)

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IPR MANAGEMENT IN TOP IT FIRMS
Apple Inc. companies
acquire IPRs
Third party firms are not
able to use the IPRs
Apple Inc can market its
brands(protected by IPRs) Apple retains and
acquires customers
Generates high
revenue
Apple is able to enjoy
huge market share
Global leadership
Cannot counterfeit Apple
products
Figure 3. Conceptual diagram
(Source: Author)
Focussed research aim:
The aim of the research is to delve into the relationship between IPR management and
global leadership. IPR management enable global ICT firms like Apple Inc. to exclusively use
their flagship brands in the global market to attract immense number of customers and generate

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high revenue. These brands protected by IPRs are in other words responsible for the high global
positions the companies like Apple hold.
Research question:
The research question which the research would aim to answer would be ‘Is IPR
Management important for the global IT firms like Apple?’
Research plan including proposed method of data collection and data analysis:
Research plan:
Research plan for the mentioned topic would consist of collecting secondary and primary
data, The two sets of the data would be compiled in a coherent manner to form the paper.
Tasks Days
Preparation of the topic 5
Collecting and compiling the
relevant literature 10
Surfing the internet to collect raw
data from sources like company
websites 10
Preparing the literature review 7
Obtaining preliminary feedback
from professor 5
Incorporating feedbacks to rectify
the errors identified 5
Completion of the thesis 1
Total 42
Proposed method of data collection:
The proposed method of data collection would be secondary analysis of data. The
secondary data would be collected from analysis of articles, journals, books and newspapers. The
research would also involve collection of data from online sources like official website of Apple

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Inc. The challenge which would be faced in acquiring data from the internet would multiplicity
of data and selecting the most authentic data sets available. The secondary data to be collected as
shown above would include raw data like financial reports of the concerned company namely,
Apple Inc.
Data analysis:
The data collected secondary sources are going to be analysed in an orderly manner so as
to answer the research question selected. The information collected from the secondary data
would be analysed to verify its authenticity before incorporation in the research.
Gantt chart schedule:
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that IPR management holds tremendous importance for the
multinational companies like Apple. The company should take steps to protect its IPRs from
being infringed by local smart phones manufacturing counterfeit smart phone models. It can
pointed out that the research would however require collection of immense amount of data. The
researcher should conduct in-depth analysis of articles, books and website to accumulate
sufficient amount of data.
StartW
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5/1/19
Finish
Tue
7/23/
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May
5,
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May
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16,
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23,
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Jun
30,
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Jul
7,
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Jul
14,
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Jul
21,
'19Research planWed 5/1/19 - Tue 7/23/19
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5/6/19 - Fri 5/31/19
Rearcher
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excludes
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6/3/19 - Fri
6/14/19
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submittedWed 6/26/19 - Tue
7/23/19

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References:
Cho, Y., Yoon, S. P., & Kim, K. S. (2016). An industrial technology roadmap for supporting
public R&D planning. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 107, 1-12.
De Vries, G., Pennings, E., Block, J. H., & Fisch, C. (2017). Trademark or patent? The effects of
market concentration, customer type and venture capital financing on start-ups’ initial IP
applications. Industry and Innovation, 24(4), 325-345.
Fromer, J. C. (2015). Should the Law Care Why Intellectual Property Rights Have Been
Asserted. Hous. L. Rev., 53, 549.
Gao, Z. (2015). The enterprise merger and acquisition effect on firm value—a discussion on
Geely’s acquisition of Volvo for example. Modern Economy, 6(06), 717.
Jarrett, J. E. (2018). Intellectual property valuation and accounting.
Lee, J. H., & Pilkington, M. (2017). How the blockchain revolution will reshape the consumer
electronics industry [future directions]. IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, 6(3), 19-
23.
Purves, T., Hua, J., & Rutherford, R. (2019). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/223,710.
Song, G., Yu, D., & Lu, X. (2017, October). Research on the Influencing Factors of Reverse
Innovation of Non-core Enterprises. In 2nd International Symposium on Business
Corporation and Development in South-East and South Asia under B&R Initiative
(ISBCD 2017). Atlantis Press.
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Weblinks:
Apple.com. (2019). Apple.com. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/ [Accessed 25 Apr.
2019].
Mourdoukoutas, P. (2019). Forbes.com. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/09/13/samsung-beats-apple-in-
the-global-smartphone-market-as-chinese-brands-close-in/#64c19373697d [Accessed 25
Apr. 2019].
Uspto.gov. (2019). Uspto.gov. [online] Available at:
https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/UK-SME-IP-Toolkit_FINAL.pdf
[Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].