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

企业通过新知识和现有知识的结合进行创新。通常，创新所需的一些知识来自公司的边界之外。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有力机制。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，还会影响高科技产业的总体发展。然而，我们对这种知识交流渠道的了解相对较少。哪种类型的员工之前的经验有助于公司成功地追求新的技术领域？组织中有哪些社会和结构因素有利于员工？转移在他们之前的经验中发展起来的知识？最后，这种知识转移对企业创新和产业演变有什么影响？这个项目解决了三个重要问题。首先，利用档案数据记录了员工流动对企业和行业的总体影响，以及员工流动对创新和创新政策的影响。其次，作为档案分析的补充，该项目对从事激光技术的科学家和工程师进行了采访，并详细分析了员工如何从以前的经验中转移知识，以及促进这一过程的因素。第三，本项目采用实验方法考察人员流动促进知识转移和创新的因果机制。这种多方法方法结合了具有高外部效度的实地研究和具有高内部效度的实验室研究，为人员流动带来的知识转移问题提供了具有挑战性但重要的见解。更广泛的影响：这项研究增加了对员工流动性的理解。S在企业创新中的作用。例如，科学家和工程师从目前处于高科技市场的公司流向尚未进入市场的公司，可以降低这些公司进入市场的门槛。这些公司可以从个人带来的市场物流、规范或新产品变体的重要知识中受益，而这些知识是前雇主所不追求的。从这一理解出发，有一些关于支持科学家和工程师就业流动的条件的暗示，例如，通过促进允许个人更容易地从一个工作转移到另一个工作的政策（例如非雇主绑定的健康保险或限制雇员非竞争合同）或鼓励促进个人知识转移的组织结构。

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.