In Search of New Knowledge: When Does Hiring Foreign R&D Workers Foster Exploration?

Paul-Emmanuel Anckaert, Wolf-Hendrik Uhlbach

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This paper studies how firms’ recruitment of high-skilled foreign R&D workers affects firm-level exploration. We contemplate that by hiring foreign R&D workers, firms gain increased access to geographical and technological distant knowledge which fosters their exploratory technology development activity. Examining a sample of 376 Danish R&D active firms over the period from 2001 to 2013, we present robust support for this hypothesis and provide evidence that the recruitment of foreign R&D workers spurs firm-level exploration more intensively than the recruitment of native R&D workers. Yet, we find that this is only the case when the recruited foreign R&D workers originate from geographical backgrounds that are represented to a lesser extent within firms’ incumbent R&D workforce. Interestingly, we show that - in contrast to native R&D hires - the recruitment of foreign R&D workers fosters firm-level exploration even when the cognitive distance between these hires and firms’ incumbent R&D workforce is low.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date2021
Number of pages33
Publication statusPublished - 2021
EventDRUID21 Conference - Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
Duration: 18 Oct 202120 Oct 2021
Conference number: 42
https://conference.druid.dk/Druid/?confId=62

Conference

ConferenceDRUID21 Conference
Number42
LocationCopenhagen Business School
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityFrederiksberg
Period18/10/202120/10/2021
Internet address

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