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

Prior research has established a relation between intrafirm mobility and innovation outcomes at distributed organizations. The literature has also uniformly agreed on the mechanism underlying this relationship: the sharing of tacit knowledge and recombination of ideas that occurs because of intrafirm mobility. But a second mechanism may also be at work: intrafirm mobility might help distant employees secure access to resources for their innovative projects. Using unique data on travel, employment, and patenting for 1,315 inventors at the Indian research and development (R&D) center of a Fortune 50 multinational, I find that intrafirm mobility in the form of short-duration business trips from a distant R&D location to headquarters is positively related to higher subsequent patenting at the individual level. I also find mobility immediately prior to meetings at which R&D funds are most likely to be disbursed to be related to higher subsequent patenting. This study sheds new light on how intrafirm mobility and possible face-to-face interactions with those who allocate resources might affect innovation outcomes and the matching of resources to individuals within a distributed organization.

The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1121.