Learning by seconding: Evidence from national science foundation rotators

Christos Kolympiris, Sebastian Hoenen, Peter G. Klein

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

We study knowledge flows between organizations through secondments, shortterm employee assignments at an organization different from the home institution. Secondments allowthe sending organization to capture knowledge and network resources from the receiving organization without an organization-level contract, alliance, or colocation, a process we term learning by seconding.We focus on the National Science Foundation (NSF) rotation program, under which the NSF employs academics, called rotators, on loan from their university, to lead peer reviews. We ask how rotators affect the behavior of their academic colleagues after returning from a secondment. Using difference in differences estimations, we show that rotators' colleagues raise considerably more research funds than similar scientists who do not have a rotator colleague. Additional quantitative and qualitative evidence implies that the treatment effect occurs via knowledge transfer, as rotators help generate ideas, frame proposals, and explain processes, rather than rentseeking on the part of the rotator. Overall, the results suggest that strong ties and shared social identity play an important role in organizational knowledge acquisition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)528-551
Number of pages24
JournalOrganization Science
Volume30
Issue number3
Early online date19 Apr 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2019

Funding

Learning by Seconding: Evidence from National Science Foundation Rotators Christos Kolympiris, Sebastian Hoenen, Peter G. Klein (2019) Learning by Seconding: Evidence from National Science Foundation Rotators. Organization Science 30(3):528-551. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1245 Abstract. We study knowledge flows between organizations through secondments, short-term employee assignments at an organization different from the home institution. Secondments allow the sending organization to capture knowledge and network resources from the receiving organization without an organization-level contract, alliance, or colocation, a process we term learning by seconding. We focus on the National Science Foundation (NSF) rotation program, under which the NSF employs academics, called rotators, on loan from their university, to lead peer reviews. We ask how rotators affect the behavior of their academic colleagues after returning from a secondment. Using difference in differences estimations, we show that rotators’ colleagues raise considerably more research funds than similar scientists who do not have a rotator colleague. Additional quantitative and qualitative evidence implies that the treatment effect occurs via knowledge transfer, as rotators help generate ideas, frame proposals, and explain processes, rather than rent-seeking on the part of the rotator. Overall, the results suggest that strong ties and shared social identity play an important role in organizational knowledge acquisition. Funding: Financial support from the National Science Foundation [Grant SMA-1548028] is gratefully acknowledged. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1245. National Science Foundation  Hypothesis 1. Faculty members in academic units with a seconded returning rotator will improve their NSF grant acquisition record after the rotator returns from the NSF, compared with similar academics without a rotator colleague. Figure 1. (Color online) Average National Science Foundation (NSF) Funding for Scientists in Rotator and Control Academic Units Without NSF Funding Ex Ante An earlier version of this work received the best paper award at the DRUID 2017 conference. The authors thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their feedback and guidance; the Center for Research in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Bath School of Management (CREI@Bath), in which C.K. was a member when conducting this research, for the feedback sessions; Sandra Evans of NSF for processing the FOI request; Maryann Feldman and Jeffrey Mervis for sparking their interest in developing the research stream on NSF rotators; Janet Bercovitz, Scott Cunningham, Dirk Czarnitzki, Linus Dahlander, Daniela Defazio, Dimo Dimov, Dan Elfenbein, Grigorios Emvalomatis, Virgilio Failla, Aldo Geuna, Matte Hartog, Karin Hoisl, Adam Jaffe, Yujin Kim, Cornelia Lawson, Babis Mainemelis, Doug Miller, Solon Moreira, Elena Novelli, Andreas Panagopoulos, Corey Phelps, Ammon Salter, Markus Simeth, Paula Stephan, and Keyvan Vakili for valuable insights and support; and Philipp-Lucas Wahler for outstanding data collection support. Sum of National Science Foundation funding received before the ex ante period. Number of years between receipt of an academic’s PhD and the first year of rotation.

Keywords

  • Coarsened exact matching
  • Knowledge flows
  • National Science Foundation
  • Organizational learning
  • Rotator
  • Secondments

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Strategy and Management
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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