Secrecy as a Part of the Intellectual Value Creation Within a Firm - How to use secrecy as a strategic tool in a business

Abstract

Today, wealth and growth are, to a rapidly growing extent, driven by investment in and governing of knowledge. The industrial economy is increasingly replaced by a knowledge-based economy. Focus on knowledge, as a driver of business, requires new strategies for protecting and capturing knowledge within a firm. The focus of this thesis is to analyse how secrecy can be used as a value-creating strategy in this type of economy, both in itself but also as a complement to employment regulations and intellectual property rights. For this, I have analysed the Swedish regulation on trade secrets and the use of non-disclosure agreements. I have also analysed the use of secrecy in relation to employment and intellectual property. The conclusion is that the regulation on trade secrets and the use of secrecy are necessary for value creation in a knowledge-based economy. The strength of the protection is to a large extent dependent on a structural creation process driven by the company.