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

企业通过将新知识和现有知识结合起来进行创新。通常情况下，创新所需的一些知识来自公司边界之外。聘用有适当经验的科学家和工程师是将知识转移到公司的有力机制。科学家和工程师在公司之间的流动不仅会影响公司内部的创新，还会影响高科技产业的总体发展。然而，我们对这一知识交流渠道知之甚少。哪种类型的员工以前的经验有助于公司成功地追求新的技术领域？组织内部哪些社会和结构因素会促进员工的工作？传授他们在以前的经验中积累的知识？归根结底，这种知识转移对企业创新和行业演变有何影响？该项目解决了三个重要问题。首先，它使用档案数据记录了员工流动对公司和行业的总体影响，以及员工流动对创新和创新政策的影响。其次，作为对档案分析的补充，该项目使用了对从事激光技术工作的科学家和工程师的采访，并详细分析了员工如何从以前的经验中转移知识，以及是什么促进了这一过程。第三，该项目使用一种实验方法来检查人员流动促进知识转移和创新的因果机制。这一多方法方法结合了外部效度高的实地研究和内部效度高的实验室研究，为通过人员流动转移知识的具有挑战性但又很重要的问题提供了见解。广泛的影响：本研究增加了对员工流动在企业创新中的作用的理解。例如，科学家和工程师从目前处于高科技市场的公司转移到尚未进入市场的公司，可以降低这些公司进入的门槛。这些公司可以受益于个人在市场物流中带来的重要知识，或者以前雇主没有追求的关于新产品变体的规范或想法。从这一理解中可以看出，科学家和工程师的就业流动性应在何种条件下得到支持，例如，通过促进允许个人更容易地从一份工作转到另一份工作的政策(如非雇主挂钩的医疗保险或限制雇员竞业禁止合同)，或鼓励促进个人知识转让的组织结构。

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.