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  • Academy of Management Annals

Geographic Mobility, Immobility, and Geographic Flexibility—A Review and Agenda for Research on the Changing Geography of Work

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury
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Abstract

I review and integrate a wide range of literature that has examined how geographic mobility of high-skilled workers creates value for organizations and individuals. Drawing on this interdisciplinary literature, I document that geographic mobility creates value by facilitating the transfer and recombination of knowledge, transfer of social capital, organizational norms, and financial capital, as well as by creating opportunities for individuals to develop skills, seek resources, and experience wage increases. I also review the literature around geographic immobility and synthesize this body of research under a framework of geographic mobility frictions that constrain and add costs to geographic mobility. I enumerate four key types of frictions: regulatory frictions, occupational/organizational frictions, personal frictions, and economic/environmental frictions, which act as impediments to geographic mobility. I then propose a research agenda around studying whether and how provisioning geographic flexibility through ‘work-from-anywhere’ (WFA) policies might help individuals and firms capture value from geographic mobility and mitigate adverse effects of geographic mobility frictions. I also outline future research questions related to how adoption of geographic flexibility might alter future patterns of geographic mobility, and the future geography of work.

Keywords

Geographic Mobility; Frictions; Work-from-anywhere; Employees; Geographic Location; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Citation

Choudhury, Prithwiraj. "Geographic Mobility, Immobility, and Geographic Flexibility—A Review and Agenda for Research on the Changing Geography of Work." Academy of Management Annals 16, no. 1 (January 2022): 258–296.
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About The Author

Prithwiraj Choudhury

Technology and Operations Management
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  • Is Hybrid Work the Best of Both Worlds? Evidence from a Field Experiment By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Christos A. Makridis and Kyle Schirmann
  • Unilever: Remote Work in Manufacturing By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Susie L. Ma
  • The Future of Start-Up Chile By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo
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