News > 2008 > Yan Cimon Wins the Mercure Award for the Best PhD Dissertation in 2007

Yan Cimon Wins the Mercure Award for the Best PhD Dissertation in 2007

September 30, 2008

Yan Cimon has won the Mercure award for the best PhD dissertation in 2007, along with a cash prize of $3,000. He completed his PhD in management under the direction of Full Professor Louis Hébert, and his was selected from 15 doctoral dissertations in the HEC Montréal PhD program in 2007.

Mr. Cimon’s dissertation, entitled Capacités et collaboration, shows how an organization’s capacities, i.e. its ability to carry out an activity, whether they come from inside the organization or stem from an interorganizational network, influence its co-operation with other organizations. In other words, it looks at the capacities that make an organization attractive as a potential partner and the influence of these capacities on co-operation between organizations: crucial questions, needless to say, for both managers and researchers.

The quality of Mr. Cimon’s doctoral dissertation has already earned him some very interesting opportunities – this in fact is one of the selection criteria rated by the jury for this competition. The author has spoken at nine major North American and international conferences, most recently at those held by the International Society for Knowledge Organization and the Southwest Academy of Management, in 2008. His work has also been widely published in scientific journals that are highly regarded in their fields, including Decision Support Systems and the Journal of Knowledge Management.

Among other awards and distinctions, Mr. Cimon was awarded a $20,000 Action Canada Fellowship in 2005-2006. His dissertation was one of 13 chosen in 2007 for the AIMS-FNEEGE best dissertation award from the Association internationale en management stratégique. It was also selected by the highly prestigious 2007 Junior Faculty Consortium of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management and the Academy of International Business Doctoral Consortium. In addition, it is in the running for the biannual Udayan Rege Award for the best Canadian doctoral dissertation in the administrative sciences, from the Administrative Science Association of Canada (ASAC).

Mr. Cimon is currently an Assistant Professor of Strategy with the Faculty of Administration at Université Laval. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Université de Montréal, an MSc (international management option) from HEC Montréal and a graduate diploma in Defense Planning and Resource Management from the National Defense University.

The jury for the best HEC Montréal PhD dissertation competition consisted of professors Jean-Claude Cosset (International Business), Richard Déry (Management) and Paul Lanoie (Applied Economics).


Prix Mercure - Yan Cimon et François Bellavance

Yan Cimon (right), winner of the Mercure award for the best PhD dissertation in 2007, with Professor François Bellavance, Director of MSc and PhD programs.