Green technology licensing under platform selling
研究了平台销售模式下，创新企业如何通过固定费用或版税许可向竞争对手授权绿色技术，发现版税许可在环保和创新企业盈利上更优，且平台佣金率提高可能损害自身利益。
Industrial practice has shown that technology licensing is of great importance to green technology development. This study investigates licensing strategies for green technology under the background of platform selling. We consider an online platform operating through agency selling and two competitive firms one of which is an innovator investing in green technology. The innovator has an option to offer a license for the green technology to its competitor. Using No licensing scenario as a benchmark, we examine two alternative licensing strategies (Fixed-fee licensing vs. Royalty licensing) when the innovator licenses the technology. We find that licensing enhances the optimal green technology level, each firm’s optimal price, and realized demand. Royalty licensing strategy outperforms Fixed-fee licensing strategy from the viewpoint of environmental performance and the innovator’s profitability. Interestingly, we find that product price may decline with production cost, and when the platform charges firms a higher commission rate, the firms will choose a lower product price in some condition. Furthermore, by numerical examples, we observe an increasing commission rate may hurt the platform.