HEC Paris PhD student, Martin Hetu, receives the 2020 Dissertation Research Grant by The Strategic Management Society (SMS)

Martin Hetu is a HEC Paris PhD Student in Strategy and Business Policy and works on “The Impact of Intellectual Property Institutions on Cross-Border Market Entry and Inventor Mobility" with his supervisor, HEC Professor Denisa Mindruta. 

Summary: 
My dissertation research, developed in collaboration with HEC Professor Denisa Mindruta, investigates how technology commercialisation and inventor mobility are influenced by the strength of legal institutions. More specifically, I examine the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) institutions on market entry by technological firms at the national and international levels as well as the relocation of scientists across borders and organisations. 
In a first paper, I tackle a long-standing debate in the literature on the impact of IPR institutions on incentives for firms to enter into technological markets. Furthermore, I assess how complementary and technological capabilities interact to enable or hinder market entry in weak and strong IPR environments. In a second paper, I focus on the impact of IPR institutions on cross-border market entry. Prior studies in the technology commercialisation literature have assumed that firms are constrained by the local IPR environment and do not have the option to relocate or expand their technology commercialisation activities across borders in function of the relative favorability of IPR institutions. This paper accordingly aims to uncover whether foreign firms are more or less likely to enter a country with weakened IPR institutions and whether local firms are more or less likely to enter foreign countries with stronger IPR institutions after their local IPR institutions have been weakened. In a third paper, I seek to contribute to the literature on human resources mobility by examining the impact of IPR institutions on cross-border inventor mobility. More specifically, I investigate whether an unexpected reduction in the strength of a country’s IPR institutions is likely to have an impact on inbound and outbound mobility of inventors.
In order to address these gaps in the literature, I rely on a shock that significantly reduced the strength of the IPR environment in the United States (US) pharmaceutical industry. In a decision rendered in 2013, the US Supreme Court put an end to a 30 years period during which court decisions established and repeatedly confirmed the patentability of genes. The Supreme Court’s decision accordingly allowed pharmaceutical firms to develop and commercialise drugs targeting any gene previously protected by IPR in the US. However, the European Union (EU) specified and harmonised the law governing IPR protection of biotechnological inventions in 1998, specifically allowing for gene patenting in all member countries. This distinction in the rules of the IPR regime covering the patenting of genetic sequences in the US and in the EU thus provides an opportunity to develop a difference-in-differences empirical design set in the pharmaceutical industry. 

___________________________

The SMS Dissertation Research Grant Program

The Strategy Research Foundation (SRF) of the Strategic Management Society (SMS) announces its 2020 Dissertation Research Grant Program and calls for grant proposals associated with doctoral students’ dissertations in strategic management. Proposals should describe original research in strategic management that is required for the award of a research doctoral degree (Ph.D. or equivalent).
The Dissertation Research Grant Program funds are intended to supplement other financial resources available to students and to support elements of their research that enhance the quality, expand the scope, augment the research design, or in some other way enrich their dissertation projects.