ESSAYS ON HUMAN CAPITAL REDEPLOYMENT

This dissertation focuses on questions about the redeployment of inventors between business units in multi-business firms. In knowledge-intensive firms, in which individual inventors collectively constitute the firms’ knowledge, skills, and networks, decisions regarding inventor management influence how firms build new resources and capabilities. Specifically, I aim to answer two questions: (1) Which inventors are most likely to be redeployed within a firm? and (2) How do firms decide between redeploying existing inventors and hiring external inventors? The first essay examines how the characteristics of inventors’ accumulated knowledge and relational interconnectedness affect their likelihood of redeployment, and the second essay explores how the benefits arising from properly matching inventors and tasks influence firms’ hiring choices. For empirical analysis, I utilize the unexpected increase in the profitability of ethylene-based business units in the U.S. petrochemical industry due to the U.S. shale revolution to examine inventor redeployment decisions to newly expanded ethylene-based business units. As a whole, this dissertation offers new insights into how firms can effectively manage their human capital to enhance growth, innovation, and adaptability amidst market changes and uncertainties.