How Do Mobility Direction and Human Assets of Mobile Engineers Affect Joint Knowledge Creation after M&As?

Namgyoo K. Park, Monica Youngshin Chun and Jeonghwan Lee
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Namgyoo K. Park: College of Business Administration, Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu, Gwnak-ro 1, Seoul 08826, Korea
Monica Youngshin Chun: College of Business Administration, Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu, Gwnak-ro 1, Seoul 08826, Korea
Jeonghwan Lee: Department of International Business and Trade, College of Business Administration, Myongji University, Seodaemun-gu, Geobukgol-ro 34, Seoul 03674, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 16, 1-21

Abstract: We focused on mobile engineers, a distinctive employee group that may have unique reactions to mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Mobile engineers, employees that move from one firm to another, were previously recognized as an undesirable loss by most knowledge-intensive organizations. However, in this study, we show that they may return to their former organizations as effective knowledge creators when their previous and new organizations unite through M&As. We specifically investigated how their mobility direction, relational assets, and intellectual assets affect the amount of knowledge that is jointly created through inter-personal collaborations following the M&A. Using the data of 410 mobile engineers in high-technology M&As during 2000–2004 in the United States, we found that the mobility direction from acquiring firms to targets prior to M&A has a positive impact on joint knowledge creation. We also found that such mobility direction positively moderates the relationship between human assets of mobile engineers and their joint knowledge creation.

Keywords: joint knowledge creation; M&As; mobile engineer; mobility direction; relational and intellectual assets at the individual level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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