Effects of hiring former employees of multinationals in the absorptive capacity of local firms

• Juan Carlos Leiva ^[1] ; Juan Antonio Rodríguez Alvarez ^[1] ; Ricardo Monge González ^[1]
  1. [1] Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica

     Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica

     Oriental, Costa Rica

     
• Localización: Contaduría y administración, ISSN 0186-1042, ISSN-e 2448-8410, Vol. 62, Nº. 2, 2017, págs. 670-682
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cya.2016.06.011
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    La atracción de inversión extranjera directa busca, entre otros objetivos, aumentar la productividad de las empresas locales vía difusión de conocimiento. Sin embargo, la evidencia empírica al respecto es contra-dictoria. Un factor influyente es la capacidad de absorción de las empresas locales. Este artículo analiza el efecto de la presencia de exempleados de empresas multinacionales, como empleados de empresas locales, en la capacidad de absorción de dichas empresas. El estudio se realizó en Costa Rica, país reconocido por su exitosa estrategia en la materia. Los datos provienen de una encuesta a 1,167 empresas efectuada por el Observatorio Costarricense de las Pymes en 2011. Se halló que la contratación de exempleados de empresas multinacionales por parte de las empresas locales tiene un efecto positivo sobre el índice de capacidad de absorción de conocimiento en las empresas de todos los sectores productivos. Específicamente, esta con-tratación de exempleados incrementa en 9 puntos porcentuales el índice de capacidad de absorción, con diferencias por sectores y tamaños de empresas.

  • English

    The attraction of foreign direct investment seeks, among other things, to increase the productivity of local companies through knowledge spillovers. However, the empirical evidence in this regard is contradictory. One influential factor is the absorptive capacity of the local companies. This article analyzes the effect of the presence of former employees of multinational corporations as employees of local companies, on the absorptive capacity of said companies. The study was done in Costa Rica, a country known for its successful strategy in the subject matter. The data come from a survey applied to 1167 companies by the Observatorio Costarricense de las Pymes in 2011. It was found that the hiring of former employees of multinational corporations by local companies has a positive effect on the index of absorptive capacity of companies in all productive sectors. Specifically, this hiring of former employees increases the index of absorptive capacity by nine percentage points, with differences by sector and the size of the company.

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