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The paper examines how individual motivations, the role of the supervisor and gender influence the early career path of doctorate holders. We investigate PhD graduates’ occupational outcomes beyond academia in the framework of current literature on the oversupply of PhD holders and labor market constraints. Our analysis relies on two unique datasets. The first, at the national level, includes microdata from the Italian National Institute of Statistics regarding about 41,000 graduates who account for over 70% of the population of 6 cohorts surveyed for the period 2004–2014. The other dataset is from a single university, and resulted from an original survey of 760 PhD holders who earned their doctorates from the University of Turin in 2007–2017. We find that PhD holders’ motivation towards science is associated with their subsequent employment in academia or in other research and non-research jobs. Sponsoring support in early career and the supervisor’s propensity for basic research also play a role in the future academic career path. Gender differences in type of occupation, however, continue to persist even taking motivations and the supervisor’s role into account.

This chapter looks at the global network of innovative agglomerations, with a focus on their degree of internationalization and on the actors behind it—particularly high-skilled migrants. Using worldwide patent and publication geo-localized data, it identifies all Global Hotspots of Innovation (GIHs) and Niche Clusters (NCs) worldwideand relates their success to their international connections. In particular, it compares organizational ones, such as international collaborations orchestrated by multinational firms’ collaborations, to personal ones, which may derive from migration to/from the GIHs and NCs. The analysis suggests a strong role for the latter, always comparable and sometimes larger than the former.