Markets for Inventors : Examining Mobility Patterns of Engineers in the Semiconductor Industry

It is well known that the movement of people between organizations and regions results in knowledge diffusion. In this paper, we highlight the drivers of mobility of researchers between firms in the electronics industry. The research in this industry is characterized by being patent-intensive and cumulative in nature. The first feature allows us to track the movement of inventors across firms through their patenting activity, while the second anticipates knowledge acquisition as a critical process for any entrant in the industry. Our aim is to highlight which type of firms use the learning-by-hiring, which type of knowledge they seek and which characteristics of the inventors' work act as a signal of the probability to embody this type of knowledge. Examining the inventors' moves from the big player in the industry, IBM, we find that knowledge by mover inventors significantly differ from no-movers' knowledge. Moreover, results point out that the qualitative value of the inventor's know-how is a key driver for mobility