Isomorphism. A Pathway to Institutionalize Intellectual Property in the Pacific Alliance

The objective of this article is to analyze the process of institutionalization of Intellectual Property (IP) in the Pacific Alliance (PA) from its origin in 2011 to 2020. This organization is made up of four countries: Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru. The theoretical foundation is located in the theory of neo-institutionalism, which grounds the analysis of isomorphism and institutional immersion regarding international agreements and political factions within the economic bloc. The question of this work is: What kinds of isomorphism and institutional immersion prevail in the IP documents assumed by the countries of the PA from 2011 to 2020? Two groups of documents were analyzed: the first group is made up of the documents that constitute the regulatory framework of IP in the international context, and the second group is made up of the documents that have been approved by the PA in this field. In the international context, seventeen treaties on intellectual property are analyzed under the scheme of the three types of isomorphism: coercive, mimetic and normative. Since its foundation, the PA has signed 27 documents related to intellectual property, which are distributed in the three types of isomorphism, where eight belong to the mimetic, seven coercive, ten normative and two mimetic and normative. Another concept that is analyzed is that of institutional immersion; under this scheme, seventeen documents signed by the Pacific Alliance are reviewed, where thirteen seek to promote cooperation, and five are mandated. It was found that mimicry maintains a strong influence in international intellectual property agreements; this is the result of institutional weakness; weak institutions seek to imitate the most successful ones, but it is also a consequence of tendencies to promote international cooperation. The continuation of this work should be aimed at explaining the influence of the institutionalization of intellectual property on the innovation indicators of the PA.