Competitive Implications of Interfirm Mobility

This paper examines the competitive consequences of interfirm mobility. Because the loss of key members (defined as top decision makers) to competing firms may amount to a replication of a firm’s higher-order routines, we investigate the conditions under which interfirm mobility triggers transfer of routines across organizational boundaries. We examine membership lists pertinent to the Dutch accounting industry to study key member exits and firm dissolutions over the period 1880–1986. We exploit information on the type of membership migration (individual versus collective) and the competitive saliency of the destination firm as inferred from the recipient status (incumbent versus start-up) and its geographic location (same versus different province). The dissolution risk is highest when collective interfirm mobility results in a new venture within the same geographic area. The theoretical implications of this study are discussed

Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity in Founding Patterns

A growing body of literature suggests that populations of organizations are not homogeneous, but instead comprise distinct subentities. Firms are highly dependent on their immediate institutional and competitive environments. The present paper further explores this issue by focusing on the spatial and temporal sources of industry heterogeneity. Our goal is threefold. First, we explore founding rates as a function of spatial density, arguing that density-dependent processes occur along a geographic gradient ranging from proximate, to neighboring, to more distant contexts. Second, we show how multiple, local evolutionary clocks shape such entrepreneurial activity. Third, we provide evidence on how diffusion processes are directly affected by social contagion, with new organizational forms spreading through movements of individuals. Results from data on the Dutch accounting industry corroborate these patterns of heterogeneity