Internationalization’s Effect on Mobility and Firms’ Employee-Based Resources

Though human and relational capital are vital to the success of firms, little research exists on how these resources change in response to firms' growth. We argue that focal firm employee-based resources shift as a result of internationalization by considering the specific case of knowledge workers in internationally expanding firms. We theorize that increased mobility of employees drives these resource shifts within focal firms. By highlighting the central role mobility plays in firms as they expand, new research questions arise that would help increase our understanding of this bidirectional strategy-resource relationship-questions that move beyond the notion that resources drive strategy but also that resources change in association with strategy implementation. Our paper encourages a new perspective on the unintentional impacts on between-firm resource heterogeneity that originate from organizations' shifts in scope, scale, and strategies.