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

科学与创新政策博士论文研究：激光产业的人员流动、知识转移与创新

• 批准号: 1360210
• 负责人: Linda Argote
• 金额: $ 1.47万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-15 至 2017-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1360210&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Science; Innovation

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.

企业通过结合新知识和现有知识进行创新。通常，创新所需的一些知识来自公司外部。 雇用具有适当经验的科学家和工程师是将知识转移到公司的一个强有力的机制。科学家和工程师在企业之间的流动不仅会影响企业内部的创新，还会影响高技术产业的总体发展。 然而，我们对这种知识传播渠道知之甚少。什么样的员工先前的经验有助于公司成功地追求新的技术领域？ 在一个组织中，促进员工的社会和结构因素是什么？传授他们在以往经验中积累的知识？最后，这种知识转移对企业创新和产业发展有什么影响？这个项目涉及三个重要问题。 首先，使用档案数据，它记录了员工流动性对企业和行业的总体影响，以及员工流动性对创新和创新政策的影响。第二，作为对档案分析的补充，该项目对从事激光技术工作的科学家和工程师进行了访谈，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，该项目采用实验方法来研究人员流动促进知识转移和创新的因果机制。 这种多方法相结合的实地研究，具有较高的外部效度，与实验室研究，具有较高的内部效度提供了具有挑战性的见解，但重要的，知识转移的问题，人员mobility.Broader影响：这项研究增加了员工流动的理解？在企业创新中的作用。 例如，科学家和工程师从目前处于高技术市场的公司向尚未进入市场的公司流动，可以降低这些公司进入市场的障碍。这些公司可以从个人带来的重要知识中受益，这些知识是关于市场物流或规范或新产品变体的想法，而这些都是前雇主没有追求的。从这一理解中，可以得出一些结论，即在何种条件下应当支持科学家和工程师的就业流动，例如，通过制定政策，使个人能够更容易地从一个工作转到另一个工作（如非雇主附带的医疗保险或限制雇员的非竞争性合同），或鼓励建立有利于个人知识转让的组织结构。