Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot? The Reverse Transfer of Knowledge through Mobility Ties
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knowledge transfer
localization
social capital
interfirm networks
semiconductor industry
Business Administration, Management, and Operations
Business and Corporate Communications
Business Intelligence
Human Resources Management
Management Information Systems
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Strategic Management Policy
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Abstract
While mobility's effect on knowledge transfer to firms that hire mobile employees is well demonstrated, we choose to explore mobility's effect on knowledge transfer to firms that lose these employees. Focusing on this ‘outbound mobility’ allows us to isolate effects of social mechanisms associated with mobility. We find that semiconductor firms losing employees are more likely to subsequently cite patents of firms hiring these employees, suggesting that mobility‐driven knowledge flows are bidirectional. In addition, the outbound mobility effect is pronounced when mobility occurs between geographically distant firms, but attenuates for geographically proximate firms since other redundant knowledge channels exist within regions.