The foundation of a well-defined, respected, and enforced property rights is necessary for the market process to coordinate positive-sum exchange.
Property rights are any body of laws created by a country’s government to define how individuals can own, benefit from and alienate property. Where there is no individual ownership of property, there will be an absence of interest in preserving the land, or its resources, which are vital to the entrepreneurship and production process.
This apathy eventually leads to what social scientists call the tragedy of the commons—people not concerned about the preservation of resources but only its use, often in excess. This thereby brings about destructive competition among individuals in the community for the control of economic resources available on such properties.
It is therefore important to state that people need to know who owns what, and to what extent. Such systems is critical in helping ventures transform their innovation potential and creativity into market value and competitiveness.