Structural knowledge: how executive experience with structural composition affects intrafirm mobility and unit reconfiguration

Abstract

This article explores how knowledge embodied in executives is tied to the organizational context in which it develops. Drawing on the knowledge‐based view of the firm and human capital theory, we predict that executives will move between units with similar ‘structural composition’—a characteristic representing unit origin (as acquired or internally developed) and how the unit was reconfigured. We further argue that executives will be conduits of organizational change. We predict that units receiving more transferred executives, executives with recombination experience, and executives from core internal units will have a greater likelihood of being recombined, while units receiving executives from previously acquired units will tend to remain unchanged. The study examines a 20‐year panel of 48 multidivisional firms from the U.S. medical sector. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Innovation Outcomes in a Distributed Organization: Intrafirm Mobility and Access to Resources

“…A nascent literature explores intra-firm mobility and innovation outcomes within distributed organizations (Madsen et al, 2003;Singh, 2008;Lahiri, 2010;Karim and Williams, 2012). 2 Madsen et al (2003) theorize that intra-firm mobility reinforces a firm's retention of its existing organizing patterns.…”

“…Finally, Karim and Williams (2012) examine whether intra-firm mobility promotes knowledge sharing and organizational change. The authors draw on the knowledge-based view of the firm (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990;Kogut and Zander, 1992;Grant, 1996), which asserts that knowledge resides within individuals and on Drazin and Rao's (2002) argument that mobile executives help to transfer knowledge within a firm and bring new expertise and experience to the units to which they transfer.…”

“…Karim and Williams (2012) track 885 cases of permanent executive movement from a source unit to a destination unit; Singh (2008) characterizes intra-firm mobility as permanent moves of an inventor from one region to another region. Lahiri (2010) uses a similar measure of permanent mobility of inventors using patent data.…”

“…The comprehensive review of employee mobility and organizational outcomes by Mawdsley and Somaya (2015) has no mention of the topic of intrafirm mobility. Scholars of the nascent literature on intra-firm mobility and intra-organizational linkages such as Madsen et al (2003), Singh (2008), Lahiri (2010), and Karim and Williams (2012) have discussed how intra-firm mobility can promote sharing of tacit knowledge and recombination of ideas. I develop reasoning for why such mobility can promote better access to resources and thus innovative outcomes at the individual level.…”

“…A nascent literature has documented that intra-firm mobility affects innovation outcomes in a distributed organization (Madsen et al, 2003;Singh, 2008;Lahiri, 2010;Karim and Williams, 2012). This literature has also singled out a mechanism that could explain why intra-firm mobility is related to innovation outcomes in such a context: better diffusion of tacit knowledge via mobility on the part of inventors and recombination of knowledge arising from intra-organizational linkages.…”