Doctoral Dissertation Research: Search strategies and collaborative innovation of young firms: A natural experiment

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The complex nature of physician-industry collaboration poses challenges in policy making: regulations that center on enhancing transparency of financial relationships between physicians and firms may cause unintended separation of physicians from innovation efforts of medical device firms. This research investigates how laws and policies that govern physician-industry collaboration impact the rate and direction of technological innovation in the medical device industry. Prior work has shown that approximately 20% of medical devices patents could be attributed back to physicians, i.e. expert users providing critical insights to the new product development process. However, physician-industry interactions could also create a conflict of interest if physicians endorse products of companies they collaborate with, which may adversely impact the quality of patient care and elevate the cost of health care. By empirically examining the effect of policy on physician-firm relationships and subsequently on medical innovation, this project aims to provide a more comprehensive yet nuanced understanding of the economic and social implications of user innovation. The research suggests strategy to help young firms navigate external search for new knowledge to enhance innovation performance. More broadly, the research suggests policy refinement that could potentially expand the growth of a vital part of the economy. This project uses a quasi-experimental design to investigate physician-firm collaboration patterns, as well as the changes in the direction and rate of firms' innovation outcomes. Drawing on a social network perspective, the project further explores how firms may be affected deferentially based on the ex-ante collaboration network patterns of the firms themselves. This research makes both theoretical and empirical contributions to the innovation and strategy literature. It extends the user-firm dyadic focus to a broader network context, situates search via users alongside other types of search channels, and examine the dynamics of search patterns. The project provides a novel research design to make significant inroads to establish a causal relationship between collaboration ties and firm innovation. Taken together, this project aims to advance the understanding of the issue of physician-industry collaboration and its multifaceted implications.