Ziming Wang (University of Tokyo) will be presenting his work on “Open Patents, Closed Exits: Tesla’s Patent Pledge and Venture Exit in China”.
About this session: This paper examines how Tesla’s 2014 patent pledge affected entrepreneurial outcomes in China. Using venture capital investment data on Chinese startups from Tesla’s founding month to the end of 2019, we employ a difference-in-differences design comparing Tesla-related ventures with other startups before and after the pledge. We find that Tesla-related ventures experienced a significant decline in successful exit rates after Tesla’s patent pledge. The result is robust to rich fixed effects and alternative specifications. Additional moderation analyses suggest that the effect varies across investor and venture characteristics, pointing to several possible mechanisms. One interpretation is that opening access to patents may lower formal entry barriers, while failing to provide the tacit knowledge, complementary assets, or market advantages needed for successful commercialization. Overall, the paper highlights a potential dark side of strategic openness: patent pledges may broaden access to technology, but they can also reshape competition and weaken the conditions that allow startups to achieve successful exits.
When: Monday 22nd of June
12.30-13.45 Talk, Q&A and light lunch, followed by networking
Where: Online on Zoom only, join us virtually on Zoom.
The weekly climaTRACES workshops,organised by Kamiar Mohaddes and Henning Zschietzschmann, are attended by a diverse group of people from economics, geography, politics, engineering, business, earth sciences, natural sciences, and history, generating interdisciplinary discussion. One person leads the session, on either a paper they have written, a work in progress, or just an idea they have and would like feedback on. This is also an opportunity for people to find our more about the team on what climaTRACES have been up to and what future events and research projects are being developed.