The knowledge spillover resulting from the mobility of knowledge workers

This study uses patent data to conduct an empirical analysis of the effect of inventor mobility on R&D performance and innovation. I examine the characteristics of knowledge workers who moved from Japan to China and Korea to explore what types of knowledge workers successful firms in China and Korea select from rival companies in Japan. In addition, this study focuses on the role of the inventors' networks to investigate the significance of researcher mobility and knowledge spillovers as mechanisms that facilitate the flow of tacit knowledge. This study reveals that during the process of innovation, the mobility of knowledge workers and their informal networks play an important role. The findings suggest that successful firms do not require “star inventors” but rather people with analytical skills and problem-solving capacity.

I. Introduction

To spur innovation and economic growth, the endowments of knowledge factors such as research and development and human capital are a necessary condition to generate new technologies. The greatest source for the generation of new economic knowledge is generally considered to be R&D ([1], [2]). R&D not only generates innovations but also develops firms' ability to identify, cultivate, and exploit the knowledge and ideas developed by other firms. In other words, firms are exogenous, while their performance in generating technology changes is endogenous ([2]). Endogenous growth models suggest that R&D activities undertaken by profit-maximizing firms are an important investment for obtaining new knowledge, where knowledge is an input in the process of generating endogenous growth ([3]–[5]).