Doctoral Dissertation Research in Science of Science and Innovation Policy: Personnel Movement, Knowledge Transfer and Innovation in the Laser Industry

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Firms innovate through the combination of new and existing knowledge. Often some of the knowledge required to innovate comes from outside the boundaries of the firm. Hiring scientists and engineers with the right experience is a powerful mechanism for transferring knowledge into the firm. Not only can the movement of scientists and engineers between firms affect innovation within firms, it can also affect the aggregate development of high-technology industries. Yet, we know relatively little about this channel of knowledge communication. What type of employee prior experience aids a firm in successfully pursuing new technological areas? What are the social and structural factors within an organization that facilitate employees? transferring knowledge developed during their prior experiences? And ultimately, what are the implications of this knowledge transfer for firm innovation and industry evolution? This project addresses three important questions. First, using archival data it documents the aggregate impact of employee mobility on firms and industries and the implications of employee mobility for innovation and innovation policy. Second, complementing the archival analyses, the project uses interviews with scientists and engineers working on laser technology and provides a detailed analysis of how employees transfer knowledge from their prior experiences and what facilitates this process. Third, the project uses an experimental approach to examine the causal mechanisms through which personnel mobility enables knowledge transfer and innovation. This multi-method approach combining a field study, which has high external validity, with a laboratory study that has high internal validity provides insights into challenging, yet important, questions on knowledge transfer by personnel mobility.Broader Impacts: This research increases understanding of employee mobility?s role in innovation in firms. For instance, the movement of scientists and engineers from firms currently in a high-technology market to firms not yet in the market can lower the barrier for these firms to enter. These firms can benefit from vital knowledge individuals bring with them on market logistics or norms or ideas on new product variants that the prior employer did not pursue. From this understanding, there are implications about the conditions under which the employment mobility of scientists and engineers ought to be supported, by, for example, fostering policies that allow individuals to more easily move from job to job (such as non-employer tied health insurance or limiting employee non-compete contracts) or encouraging organizational structures that facilitate knowledge transfer by individuals.