What is it about?
We investigate critical boundary conditions for a well-developed paradigm in entrepreneurship research, namely, the knowledge-based view of entrepreneurship. This view holds that mobility of employees from established firms to startup firms - as founders or key employees of the new venture - confer performance advantage for startups through diffusion of knowledge. We found that startups have no performance advantage when mobile employees have a history of frequent job switches, thus suggesting that knowledge flow should not be inferred from count of mobility.
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Why is it important?
Our work highlights why it is important to reconsider a well-known assumption underlying knowledge-based theories of entrepreneurship - that employee mobility implies knowledge diffusion.
Perspectives
Data on mobility flows are widely used to study diffusion of knowledge developed in one firm to other firms, across geography, industry and professional boundaries. They are also used extensively to infer network ties between firms, for instance. Our findings point to a need for capturing these underlying process more carefully.
Dr. Chanchal Balachandran
Universita della Svizzera Italiana
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This page is a summary of: Mobility and Entrepreneurship: Evaluating the Scope of Knowledge-Based Theories of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, January 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1111/etap.12223.
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