We investigate how family and non-family small-and-medium size enterprises (SMEs) differ in their preference for patenting over secrecy as a means to protect value of intellectual property, and how proactive orientation moderates this relationship. Because secrecy carries more risks for spillover than patenting, we propose and provide evidence to suggest that family SMEs are more likely to use patents than secrecy relative to non-family SMEs as a mechanism to protect value. However, proactive orientation can weaken this relationship, since SMEs with a proactive orientation will avoid the disclosure of information required for patenting. Using a sample of 300 SMEs from four countries in the wine industry, we find support for our hypotheses and contribute to both the intellectual property (IP) and SME literatures by explaining how family SMEs relative to non-family SMEs protect the value of IP.

我们调查了家族企业和非家族中小型企业（SME）在优先选择通过保密而不是专利作为保护知识产权价值的手段方面的差异，以及主动导向如何缓解这种关系。由于保密性比专利性带来的溢出风险更大，因此我们提出并提供证据表明，相对于非家族性中小企业，相对于非家族性中小企业来说，家族性中小企业使用专利的可能性要比保密性高。但是，主动定向可能会削弱这种关系，因为具有主动定向的中小企业将避免公开专利所需的信息。利用来自葡萄酒行业四个国家的300家中小型企业的样本，