In Search of Inspiration: External Mobility and the Emergence of Technology Intrapreneurs

Recent scholarship has established several ways in which external hiring—versus filling a role with comparable internal candidate—is detrimental to firms. Yet, organizational learning theory suggests that hires benefit firms: by importing knowledge is unavailable or obscured insiders and applying it toward experimentation risky recombination. Accordingly consistent studies of hiring innovation, we predict are at greater risk intrapreneurship than hires. We test this prediction via study product managers large technology companies. use machine operationalize comparing manager job descriptions the founding statements venture-backed entrepreneurs. Our research design employs coarsened exact matching balance pretreatment covariates between who arrived their roles internally versus externally. The results our analysis indicate externally hired substantially more intrapreneurial observably equivalent However, also find have higher turnover rate, an effect primarily driven This for may be difficult strategy sustain. Funding: authors acknowledge financial support from London Business School, National University Singapore [Grant WBS R-313-000-128-133], dissertation grant Ewing Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri. Supplemental Material: online appendix available https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1530 .