Should Firms Avoid Relying on Key Employees? Evidence From Inventors
通过分析美国上市公司发明家的职业轨迹，发现发明家基础集中度能提升企业后续的创新生产率，但会偏向利用式创新而非探索式创新，且受技术或产品生命周期长度及企业集团状态的影响。
ABSTRACT Analysing inventor careers in U.S. public firms, we find that higher inventor‐base concentration enhances corporate innovation productivity in subsequent years, a relationship that remains consistent across various model specifications. Concentration improves the retention of individual inventors and teams, supporting the employee retention hypothesis. However, firms with concentrated inventor bases tend to emphasize exploitation over exploration in their innovation efforts. Moreover, the impact of inventor‐base concentration is moderated by factors such as technology or product lifecycle length and conglomerate status. These findings underscore the critical role of human capital management in driving firm innovation.