Standard vs. partnership-embedded licensing: Attention and the relationship between licensing and product innovations

•Paper examines the relationship of licensing knowledge and the creation of product innovations.•Considers variance in the type of licensing agreements and in the level of attention available within the licensee.•Standard licensing (SL) less likely leads to the creation of product innovation than partnership-embedded licensing (PEL).•In the presence of bottom-up and top -down attention SL can lead to innovation outcomes similar to those of PEL.•Paper provides fresh insights by connecting the licensing literature with the attention literature.