When trust becomes a liability: Relational vulnerability and technology misappropriation in asymmetric innovation ecosystems

Technology misappropriation in asymmetric business-to-business (B2B) innovation partnerships occupies an ethical gray zone in which formally legal practices coexist with relational exploitation. This study examines how structural asymmetries embedded in innovation ecosystems condition such misappropriation by shaping power relations, trust dynamics, and institutional accountability. We conceptualize relational vulnerability as the mechanism through which power asymmetry (unequal control over resources and decision-making) and trust asymmetry (imbalanced relational exposure) jointly undermine ethical stability when institutional safeguards are weak. Drawing on five in-depth case studies of South Korean innovation partnerships and a computational analysis of 5280 social media posts and 154 news articles, the study employs a mixed-method design integrating qualitative coding with large-scale discourse analytics. The findings show that while trust facilitates collaborative engagement within innovation partnerships, it can also amplify vulnerability when partnerships are embedded in asymmetric innovation ecosystems characterized by institutional voids and limited enforcement capacity. In such contexts, formal avenues for redress are constrained, prompting affected actors to seek informal accountability through public discourse, where digital publics function as emergent moral adjudicators. By demonstrating that ethical breakdowns arise not from isolated opportunism but from systemic misalignments between relational expectations and ecosystem-level governance capacities, this study contributes to research on corporate social irresponsibility, interorganizational governance, and innovation ecosystem theory. The findings highlight ethical fragility and relational vulnerability as critical yet underexplored dimensions of innovation ecosystems and point to the need for policy frameworks and intermediary mechanisms that align trust with accountability in contexts of structural asymmetry.