R&D employee tenure in MNC subsidiaries: the role of institutional distance and experience |
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| Authors: | Dhruba Borah Silvia Massini Lucia Piscitello |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Strategy International Business and Entrepreneurship, University of Liverpool Management School, Chatham Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZH UK;2. Alliance Manchester Business School and Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR), The University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 9PB UK;3. Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, P.za L. da Vinci 32, Milan, 20133 Italy |
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| Abstract: | Long tenure of research and development (R&D) employees helps organisations to utilise employees' knowledge over a sustained time period and strengthen their competitive advantage. It also allows organisations to benefit from the training investments made on their R&D employees. Thus, identifying the determinants of R&D employees' tenure is crucial for designing effective R&D employee retention strategies. This paper analyses the factors explaining R&D employees' tenure in the subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). Building on institutional theory, we claim that formal and informal institutional distance between MNCs' home and host country might lead to R&D employees' short tenure in subsidiaries. We further suggest that R&D employees' international experience and MNCs' host country experience play a moderating role. We find support for our hypotheses by mobilising an original database that combines patent data and the LinkedIn profiles of 939 R&D employees in 256 MNC subsidiaries in India. |
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