Mobility of researchers, collaborations and innovation

Resumen

This dissertation is entitled -Mobility of researchers, collaborations, and innovation- and explores the impact of researcher mobility on the knowledge-building processes in the organization. It takes an integrative approach, combining insights from different theoretical perspectives, to enhance our understanding of the examined phenomenon. First, building on dynamic capabilities perspective, this study proposes a conceptual model to examine how knowledge-intensive firms modify their organizational knowledge bases in the context of mobility of researchers. Second, this research draws on insight from organizational search literature to investigate how innovative performance at the organizational level may be affected by researcher mobility. Third, this dissertation integrates insights from knowledge management literature and social capital perspective to elucidate how an organization's propensity to engage in collaborative research with external scientists is influenced by its internal knowledge base. The empirical study is based on a longitudinal dataset of academic departments at universities in the United States over the period 1992-2004.