While there is a wealth of empirical research examining the potential relations and effects of foreign workers, immigration and cultural diversity on wages, employment, economic growth, and-in recent years-innovation, very little of this research has provided a convincing empirical demonstration of the mechanisms through which foreign workers would affect innovation. Most accounts hypothesize that foreign workers provide a different perspective that contributes to a diversity of ideas in the firm, while some also add the idea that foreign workers might help a firm build international networks. Nonetheless, these mechanisms have for the most part remained entirely theoretical, with few attempts being made at uncovering the intermediary relationships. This article contributes to filling this gap by focusing on the second of these mechanisms, asking whether firms that employ foreign workers also have broader international networks and whether this may, in turn, promote innovation through access to new knowledge. This article builds on survey data from approximately 500 firms in Norway, with more than ten employees, covering all sectors and regions. We find evidence that firms with highly educated foreign workers collaborate more frequently with international partners and that there is a positive relation between having a variety

By linking theoretical perspectives on human resource diversity to the distinction between knowledge exploration and exploitation, this paper contributes to the growing research literature on diversity and innovation by following up on the original argument by March [1991] that different dimensions of organizational learning depend on different inputs and processes. Empirically, the paper draws on a unique dataset constructed by merging Norwegian employer–employee register data for 2004–2008 with Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data covering the years 2008–2010. Bivariate probit regressions with controls for innovation strategy find patenting propensities more responsive to the diversity of experience-based knowledge accumulated in firms, than the propensities to improve production processes or introduce new products onto the market. The latter depends foremost on firms’ investments in innovation, and responds positively to human resource diversity only when the financial commitment of firms to development work is limited.

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