Employee Mobility and Entrepreneurship A Virtual Special Issue [1]

• Author: Alfonso Gambardella,Daniel M. Olson,Rajshree Agarwal
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2361
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Date: 01 December 2016

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Employee Mobility and Entrepreneurship

A Virtual Special Issue [1]

Rajshree Agarwal

Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Alfonso Gambardella

Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University

Daniel M. Olson

Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Introduction

A burgeoning literature on employee mobility and entrepreneurship focuses on the role of individuals

as critical conduits of knowledge diffusion, with implications for firm creation and competitive

dynamics, industry structure and evolution, and regional growth or decline. This Virtual Special Issue

(VSI) highlights key studies published in Strategic Management Society journals that have advanced

our understanding of the causes and consequences of employee mobility and entrepreneurship, across

levels of analysis ranging from regions to individuals. We further identify an incomplete list of

research opportunities motivated by extant studies.

Investments in knowledge and capabilities may lead to firm competitive advantage (Grant, 1996;

Liebeskind, 1996; Spender, 1996). Knowledge spillovers—defined as the benefits of knowledge

creation that accrue to parties other than the knowledge creator and for which the creator is not

compensated (Agarwal, Audretsch, and Sarkar, 2007)—undermine the firms’ efforts for a knowledge-

based competitive advantage. Firm knowledge and capabilities generally reside in and are developed

through the efforts of a firm’s employees (Simon, 1991), so employee exit from a firm (employee

turnover) may prove costly as the firm loses access to the knowledge and skills of the departing

employee. Additionally, a departing employee often joins an existing firm (employee mobility) or

starts or joins a new firm (employee entrepreneurship), and the employee takes the knowledge and

abilities gained at the prior firm to the new employer. Consequently, employee turnover, and

specifically employee mobility and employee entrepreneurship, presents a pathway for knowledge

diffusion across firms and significantly increases the risk of knowledge spillovers. Knowledge

spillovers may lead to economic growth at the macro level, but for firms making substantial

knowledge investments, the spillovers may severely limit prospects for competitive advantage.

This Virtual Special Issue (VSI) highlights key studies published in Strategic Management Society

journals that have advanced our understanding of the causes and consequences of employee mobility

and employee entrepreneurship. Although, ultimately, individuals decide whether to join a firm or to

create a new one, the included studies demonstrate that these decisions are driven by national and

regional, industry, firm, and individual factors. Moreover, the repercussions of employee turnover

also accrue at the national and regional, industry, firm, and individual levels. Below, we introduce the

papers included in this VSI with a brief overview of their findings relating to both the causes and

consequences of employee mobility and employee entrepreneurship, organized by levels of analysis.