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Abstract
Introducing the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Intrapreneurship, we examine how labour mobility impacts innovation distributed by firm size. A matched employer-employee dataset, pooled with firm-level patent application data, is implemented in the analysis. We provide new evidence that knowledge workers’ mobility has a positive and strongly significant impact on all firms’ innovation output, measured as patent applications. The patterns and effects do however differ between large and small firms. More precisely, for small firms, intraregional mobility of knowledge workers who have previously worked in a patenting firm (the learning-by-hiring effect) is shown to be statistically and economically highly significant, whereas only limited impact could be detected for firms losing knowledge workers (the learning-by-diaspora effect).
Highlights
According to the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE), start-ups are one way of diffusing and converting knowledge into societal utility (Acs et al 2009)
Our prime interest in the current paper is to examine the influence of mobility of knowledge (R&D) workers on innovation on firms distributed on separate size classes, small firms defined as those having less than 50 employees and medium-sized and large firms defined as those having more than 49 employees
Emanating from a theoretical framework proposed by Acs et al (2009), we present an empirical analysis of the relationship between labour mobility, knowledge diffusion, firm size and firm innovation output
Summary
According to the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE), start-ups are one way of diffusing and converting knowledge into societal utility (Acs et al 2009). The underlying mechanism refers to innovation in the Schumpeterian sense, realized by exploiting opportunities originating in knowledge overlooked or neglected by incumbents. A parallel mechanism, not addressed in the original version of the KSTE, has to do with labour mobility. R&D workers who move between firms can be expected to diffuse knowledge and to improve the matching of individuals’ heterogenous knowledge, thereby generating more of innovations. In the current analysis, we will merge insights from the fields of labour market economics, entrepreneurship and innovation to investigate how mobility influences innovation across firms of different size
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