Knowing Me, Knowing You: Inventor Mobility and the Formation of Technology-oriented Alliances

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. All rights reserved. This document may be distributed for free -electronically or in print -in the same formats as it is available on the website of the ESMT (www.esmt.org) for non-commercial purposes. It is not allowed to produce any derivates of it without the written permission of ESMT. Terms of use: Documents inFind more ESMT working papers at ESMT faculty publications, SSRN, RePEc, and EconStor. We link the hiring of R&D scientists from industry competitors to the subsequent formation of collaborative agreements, namely technology-oriented alliances. By transferring technological knowledge as well as cognitive elements to the hiring firm, mobile inventors foster the alignment of decision frames applied by potential alliance partners in the process of alliance formation thereby making collaboration more likely. Using data on inventor mobility and alliance formation amongst 42 global pharmaceutical firms over 16 years, we show that inventor mobility is positively associated with the likelihood of alliance formation in periods following inventor movements. This relationship becomes more pronounced if mobile employees bring additional knowledge about their prior firm's technological capabilities and for alliances aimed at technology development rather than for agreements related to technology transfer. It is weakened, however, if the focal firm is already familiar with the competitor's technological capabilities. By revealing these relationships, our study contributes to research on alliance formation, employee mobility, and organizational frames.

How intrafirm collaboration network influences a firm’s new knowledge search? Longitudinal evidence from the US biotechnology industry

“…While our finding contradicts Grigoriou and Rothaermel’s (2017) study that proves a substitutional effect between cohesive network and external knowledge sourcing. The possible explanation is that a cohesive network is more effective in bringing in alliance partners’ new knowledge, but it may not be effective in promoting innovation performance (Wagner and Goossen, 2018).…”

“…It is in accordance with previous studies (Tortoriello, 2015) stating that individuals in the open network can understand and adopt diverse perspectives, mind-frames and languages. Inventors located in different regions can combine cognitive elements acquired from both their firm and own geographical regions (Llopis et al , 2021), thus bringing more novel technologies in a firm’s knowledge base (Wagner and Goossen, 2018). It means that although an open network is inefficient in internalizing a large amount of external knowledge, its negative effect is balanced when facing technologies from a wider range of geographical origins.…”

“…As a result, inventors located in different regions can make their work broadly comprehensible and facilitate the integration of a firm's internal knowledge and geographically distant knowledge. They can creatively combine cognitive elements drawn from diverse terrains and make discoveries, bringing in more new technologies (Wagner and Goossen, 2018). It means that although open network is inefficient in internalizing a large amount of external knowledge, when facing technologies from a wider range of geographical origins, its negative effect is balanced.…”

“…Several studies, on the other hand, have also focused on the nonperformance drivers of search. The research focuses on a firm’s external alliance (Rosenkopf and Almeida, 2003), employee mobility (Wagner and Goossen, 2018), knowledge base (Caner et al , 2017) and organizational structure (Siggelkow and Levinthal, 2005; Brennecke et al , 2021). Previous research shows that these factors significantly contribute to a firm’s search for new technologies (Cruz-González et al , 2015; Wang and Guo, 2020).…”

Boundedly Rational Decisions on Exploration Versus Exploitation in Alliance Portfolios: Problemistic and Slack Searches Under CEO Overconfidence

“…Third, we used the SDC platinum database to track firms’ alliance activities. Although it has been widely used by scholars (Howard, Withers and Tihanyi, 2017; Lin, Yang and Demirkan, 2007; Moeen and Mitchell, 2020; Wagner and Goossen, 2018), future research should include more alternative sources to complement and verify the SDC database, such as news coding from the LexisNexis database. Fourth, we considered ROA as a performance feedback measure.…”