Laura
Shupp

The central theme of my research is how firms commercialize and engage in technology transfer across borders, with a focus on how market access, intellectual property regimes, and trade agreements shape these decisions and broader patterns of globalization. I am particularly interested in how and why these activities can differ when comparing cross-border transfer of manufacturing and capital-intensive goods to digital services, as well as across different levels of development.

 

My current research approaches this topic from two complementary angles: first, in assessing how market access liberalization affects foreign firm entry into specific markets, and second, in examining how domestic firms, particularly in services, enter and compete in global markets.

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• Focus #1: Market liberalization and economic diversification in the GCC countries

• Focus #2: Globalization of services

 

I have a handful of brilliant and wonderful policymakers and strategists to thank for inspiring this reseach trajectory. Prior to MIT, I spent eight years producing research for such individuals and organizations including the UN International Telecommunciation Union (i.e., proposing Sustainable Development Goals and undertaking a global comparison of Official Development Assistance in telecom support), a Fulbright research fellowship in Bahrain (i.e., tracing firm formation in the ICT sector in response to Vision 2030), the subsequent expansion of my Fulbright research for a related project under the Ministry of Labor and Tamkeen, to my final destination at the Saudi Ministry of Education (i.e., led an internal research unit tasked to characterize and communicate the state of higher education R&D, innovation, and university-industry technology transfer activities). 

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My research is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, where I was one of two fellows selected nationally in the Science Policy field in 2022. I was awarded this fellowship based on my proposal to study cross-border patenting and technological comparative advantage across the Middle East and North Africa.

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