 Internal redeployment versus external recruitment of inventorsSea-Jin Chang and Yoichi Matsumoto Research Policy, 2025, vol. 54, issue 6 Abstract: Firms must recruit external talent while strategically redeploying incumbent inventors across projects to maximize the value of their inventor resources. This study examines how firms can balance external recruitment and internal redeployment of inventors within the global semiconductor industry. Our findings suggest that inventors with less central positions in a firm's knowledge network are more likely to be redeployed to similar technology areas. External hires, in particular, are more likely to be redeployed compared to incumbents, possibly due to their lower opportunity costs. However, external hires tend to be redeployed to firms' incumbent technology areas rather than new ones, except when firms enter new technology areas by hiring individuals with prior experience in those areas. This approach indicates that firms may prioritize inventor productivity over possible opportunity costs to enhance the success of new technology entry. Keywords: Resource redeployment; Resource-based theory; Inventors; External recruitment; Semiconductor industry (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:6:s0048733325000678 DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2025.105238 Access Statistics for this article Research Policy is currently edited by Anna Bergek, PhD, Alex Coad, PhD, Maryann Feldman, Elisa Giuliani, Adam B. Jaffe, Martin Kenney, Keun Lee, PhD, Ben Martin, MA, MSc, Kazuyuki Motohashi, Paul Nightingale, Ammon Salter, Maria Savona, Reinhilde Veugelers and John Walsh More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier |
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