IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/manrev/v73y2023i4d10.1007_s11301-022-00286-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Antecedents of employee mobility: a systematic review and agenda for future research

Author

Listed:
  • Asmaa Elsayed Belal

    (Waseda University)

Abstract

Employee mobility has been the focus of many empirical studies across several disciplines. Understanding why employees move from one firm to another has received the attention of scholars in many academic fields, including human resource management/organizational behavior, management, economics, and health science. The aim of this review is to provide a synthesis of the empirical work published during 2010–2022 on the antecedents of employee mobility. I organize the reviewed studies according to the level of analysis underpinning each study, whether individual, group, firm, or institutional. In this review, I propose additional antecedent variables that can serve as the basis for testable hypotheses in future studies. I also formulate some propositions, considering the impact of interacting drivers at different levels of analysis on employee mobility. This, in turn, helps expand the empirical basis of the field and enriches our understanding of why employees move between employers. Further, I highlight the existing gaps in the literature and provide avenues for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Asmaa Elsayed Belal, 2023. "Antecedents of employee mobility: a systematic review and agenda for future research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(4), pages 1795-1823, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:manrev:v:73:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11301-022-00286-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11301-022-00286-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11301-022-00286-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11301-022-00286-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azoulay, Pierre & Ganguli, Ina & Graff Zivin, Joshua, 2017. "The mobility of elite life scientists: Professional and personal determinants," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 573-590.
    2. Kristin Kronenberg & Tobias Kronenberg, 2011. "Keeping up with the Joneses by finding a better-paid job - The effect of relative income on job mobility," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1445, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Swen Nadkarni & Reinhard Prügl, 2021. "Digital transformation: a review, synthesis and opportunities for future research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 233-341, April.
    4. Di Pietro, Giorgio, 2012. "Does studying abroad cause international labor mobility? Evidence from Italy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 632-635.
    5. van Huizen, Thomas & Alessie, Rob, 2019. "Risk aversion and job mobility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 91-106.
    6. Christian Le Bas, 2012. "Prolific Inventor Productivity and Mobility: A Western/Asian comparison. Evidence from US Patent Data for 12 Countries," Post-Print halshs-00755494, HAL.
    7. Evan Starr & J J Prescott & Norman Bishara, 2020. "The Behavioral Effects of (Unenforceable) Contracts† [“Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools]," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 633-687.
    8. Drivas, Kyriakos & Economidou, Claire & Karamanis, Dimitrios & Sanders, Mark, 2020. "Mobility of highly skilled individuals and local innovation activity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Joern H. Block & Christian O. Fisch & Mirjam van Praag, 2017. "The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 61-95, January.
    10. J. M. Applegate & Marco A. Janssen, 2022. "Job Mobility and Wealth Inequality," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 1-25, January.
    11. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Camille Landais & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "Taxation and International Migration of Superstars: Evidence from the European Football Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1892-1924, August.
    12. Davidson, Carl & Heyman, Fredrik & Matusz, Steven & Sjöholm, Fredrik & Zhu, Susan Chun, 2020. "Globalization, the jobs ladder and economic mobility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Fernandez-Zubieta, Ana & Geuna, Aldo & Lawson, Cornelia, 2015. "What do We Know of the Mobility of Research Scientists and of its Impact on Scientific Production," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201522, University of Turin.
    14. Nakajima, Ryo & Tamura, Ryuichi & Hanaki, Nobuyuki, 2010. "The effect of collaboration network on inventors' job match, productivity and tenure," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 723-734, August.
    15. Joachim Jarreau, 2015. "The Impact of Naturalizations on Job Mobility and Wages: Evidence from France," Working Papers halshs-01117449, HAL.
    16. Luc Renneboog & Yang Zhao, 2020. "Director networks, turnover, and appointments," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(1), pages 44-76, January.
    17. Jack A. Nickerson & Todd R. Zenger, 2008. "Envy, comparison costs, and the economic theory of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(13), pages 1429-1449, December.
    18. Seth Carnahan & Rajshree Agarwal & Benjamin A. Campbell, 2012. "Heterogeneity in turnover: the effect of relative compensation dispersion of firms on the mobility and entrepreneurship of extreme performers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1411-1430, December.
    19. Heejung Byun & Joseph Raffiee & Martin Ganco, 2019. "Discontinuities in the Value of Relational Capital: The Effects on Employee Entrepreneurship and Mobility," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1368-1393, November.
    20. Argaw, Bethlehem A. & Maier, Michael F. & Skriabikova, Olga J., 2017. "Risk attitudes, job mobility and subsequent wage growth during the early career," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    21. Rajshree Agarwal & Alfonso Gambardella & Daniel M. Olson, 2016. "Employee Mobility and Entrepreneurship A Virtual Special Issue [1]," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 11-21, December.
    22. Garcia-Louzao, Jose, 2022. "Workers’ job mobility in response to severance pay generosity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    23. Ufuk Akcigit & Salomé Baslandze & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2016. "Taxation and the International Mobility of Inventors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 2930-2981, October.
    24. Cristobal Cheyre & Steven Klepper & Francisco Veloso, 2015. "Spinoffs and the Mobility of U.S. Merchant Semiconductor Inventors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 487-506, March.
    25. Niklas Nolzen, 2018. "The concept of psychological capital: a comprehensive review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 237-277, August.
    26. Christian Fisch & Joern Block, 2018. "Six tips for your (systematic) literature review in business and management research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 103-106, April.
    27. Evan Starr & Martin Ganco & Benjamin A. Campbell, 2018. "Strategic human capital management in the context of cross‐industry and within‐industry mobility frictions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(8), pages 2226-2254, August.
    28. Marx, Matt & Singh, Jasjit & Fleming, Lee, 2015. "Regional disadvantage? Employee non-compete agreements and brain drain," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 394-404.
    29. Clément Gorin, 2016. "Patterns and determinants of inventors' mobility across European urban areas," Working Papers halshs-01313086, HAL.
    30. Gazment Koduzi & Ardita Kongjonaj & Vladimir Lazarevik, 2015. "Causes that Effect the Mobility of Albanian Healthcare Personnel," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 4, August.
    31. Liu, Meijun & Hu, Xiao, 2021. "Will collaborators make scientists move? A Generalized Propensity Score analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    32. Neus Palomeras & Eduardo Melero, 2010. "Markets for Inventors: Learning-by-Hiring as a Driver of Mobility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(5), pages 881-895, May.
    33. Aleksandra Kacperczyk & Chanchal Balachandran, 2018. "Vertical and Horizontal Wage Dispersion and Mobility Outcomes: Evidence from the Swedish Microdata," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 17-38, February.
    34. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Kong, Lei & Krishnan, Karthik & Yu, Qianqian, 2019. "Top Management Human Capital, Inventor Mobility, and Corporate Innovation," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(6), pages 2383-2422, December.
    35. Martin Ganco & Rosemarie H. Ziedonis & Rajshree Agarwal, 2015. "More stars stay, but the brightest ones still leave: Job hopping in the shadow of patent enforcement," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 659-685, May.
    36. Eduardo Melero & Neus Palomeras & David Wehrheim, 2020. "The Effect of Patent Protection on Inventor Mobility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5485-5504, December.
    37. Silvia Appelt & Brigitte van Beuzekom & Fernando Galindo-Rueda & Roberto de Pinho, 2015. "Which factors influence the international mobility of research scientists?," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2015/2, OECD Publishing.
    38. Damien Joseph & Soon Ang & Sandra A. Slaughter, 2015. "Turnover or Turnaway? Competing Risks Analysis of Male and Female IT Professionals’ Job Mobility and Relative Pay Gap," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 145-164, March.
    39. Kristin Kronenberg & Martin Carree, 2012. "On the Move: Determinants of Job and Residential Mobility in Different Sectors," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(16), pages 3679-3698, December.
    40. Di Lorenzo, Francesco & Almeida, Paul, 2017. "The role of relative performance in inter-firm mobility of inventors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1162-1174.
    41. Green, Francis, 2010. "Well-being, job satisfaction and labour mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 897-903, December.
    42. Ralf Meinhardt & Sebastian Junge & Martin Weiss, 2018. "The organizational environment with its measures, antecedents, and consequences: a review and research agenda," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 195-235, April.
    43. Olof Ejermo & Torben Schubert, 2018. "Do Higher Wages Reduce Knowledge Worker's Job Mobility? Evidence for Swedish Inventors," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 108-145, January.
    44. Scoresby, Richard B. & Park, Haemin, 2021. "The joint effects of individual and firm level knowledge attributes on inventor mobility to entrepreneurial and established firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 218-230.
    45. Ithai Stern & Sharon D. James, 2016. "Whom are you promoting? Positive voluntary public disclosures and executive turnover," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7), pages 1413-1430, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shu-Hao Chang, 2024. "International Technology Market Hotspots and Development Trends from the Perspective of Inventor Mobility," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 2361-2382, March.
    2. Ying Gao & Yuxin Tian & Shaofeng Yuan, 2024. "Linking Workplace Unfairness with Urban Withdrawal Intentions: The Moderating Role of Urban Identification," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, September.
    3. Guanchun Liu & Yuanyuan Liu & Jinyu Yang & Yanren Zhang, 2024. "Labor Contract Law and inventor mobility: evidence from China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-36, March.
    4. Simeth, Markus & Mohammadi, Ali, 2022. "Losing talent by partnering up? The impact of R&D collaboration on employee mobility," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).
    5. George Chondrakis & Mari Sako, 2020. "When suppliers shift my boundaries: Supplier employee mobility and its impact on buyer firms' sourcing strategy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(9), pages 1682-1711, September.
    6. Liu, Shasha & Kong, Dongmin & Zhang, Jian, 2024. "Air pollution-induced brain drain: Evidence from inventor mobility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Sepideh Yeganegi & Parshotam Dass & André O. Laplume, 2024. "Reviewing the employee spinout literature: A cross‐disciplinary approach," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 137-167, February.
    8. Varshney, Mayank, 2023. "Learning-by-hiring: How do rival firms learn from focal firm's hiring," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    9. Di Lorenzo, Francesco & Almeida, Paul, 2017. "The role of relative performance in inter-firm mobility of inventors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1162-1174.
    10. Claudine Gartenberg & Julie Wulf, 2020. "Competition and Pay Inequality Within and Between Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5925-5943, December.
    11. Uhlbach, Wolf-Hendrik & Tartari, Valentina & Kongsted, Hans Christian, 2022. "Beyond scientific excellence: International mobility and the entrepreneurial activities of academic scientists," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    12. Chang, Ying-Han & Huang, Mu-Hsuan, 2023. "Analysis of factors affecting scientific migration move and distance by academic age, migrant type, and country: Migrant researchers in the field of business and management," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    13. Francesco Castellaneta & Raffaele Conti & Aleksandra Kacperczyk, 2020. "The (Un) intended consequences of institutions lowering barriers to entrepreneurship: The impact on female workers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1274-1304, July.
    14. Pan, Wei-Fong, 2023. "The effect of populism on high-skilled migration: Evidence from inventors," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Paul Hunermund & Ann Hipp, 2024. "Inventor Mobility After the Fall of the Berlin Wall," Papers 2409.01861, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2025.
    16. Eduardo Melero & Neus Palomeras & David Wehrheim, 2020. "The Effect of Patent Protection on Inventor Mobility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5485-5504, December.
    17. Simeth, Markus & Mohammadi, Ali, 2017. "The impact of open innovation on employee mobility and entrepreneurship," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 449, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    18. Liu, Guanchun & Liu, Hangjuan & Liu, Yuanyuan & Yang, Jinyu & Zhang, Yanren, 2024. "Personal income tax and corporate innovation: The key role of inventors’ financial incentives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    19. Kretschmer, Tobias & Khashabi, Pooyan & Mohammadi, Ali & Raffiee, Joseph, 2020. "Cognitive Ability and Employee Mobility: Evidence from Swedish Microdata," CEPR Discussion Papers 15265, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Valentina Tartari & Francesco Di Lorenzo & Benjamin A. Campbell, 2020. "“Another roof, another proof”: the impact of mobility on individual productivity in science," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 276-303, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Antecedents of job mobility; External mobility; Job switching; Drivers of job mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M19 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Other
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:manrev:v:73:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11301-022-00286-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.