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Donghwi Seo

Hanyang University · Business, Management and Accounting

About the Lab

Professor Donghwi Seo's research lab focuses on organizational innovation, knowledge dynamics, and the strategic management of human capital in technology-driven and healthcare industries. The lab investigates how leadership, intellectual property rights, workforce diversity, and ESG strategies influence firm performance, innovation, and operational efficiency. Key research directions include knowledge spillovers post-employee mobility, the role of prolific inventors in post-failure innovation, and the impact of diversity and institutional legitimacy on organizational outcomes.

organizational innovationknowledge spilloversworkforce diversityintellectual property rightsESG strategy

Research Overview

Papers
20
Total Citations
127
Papers (5y)
12
Primary Field
Business, Management and Accounting

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
12total
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Citations per year (5y)
123total
20222023202420252026

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|50 citations·2022
Examining employee retention and motivation: the moderating effect of employee generation
C. Christopher Lee, Hyoun Sook Lim, Donghwi Seo, Dong-Heon Kwak
SJR Q2Evidence-based HRM a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship

Purpose This study explored moderating effects of employee generations on factors related to employee retention and motivation in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a survey instrument and collected the survey data via Amazon Mechanical Turk. After filtering out bad responses, the authors ended up with 489 sample cases for this study. The authors used structural equation modeling for data analysis. Findings Evidence showed that only transformational leadership was s

Organizational Behavior and Human Resource ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting
2
Article|22 citations·2022
Collaborative structure and post‐mobility knowledge spillovers: A dyadic approach
Daniel Tzabbar, Jeongsik Jay Lee, Donghwi Seo
SJR Q1Strategic Management Journal

Abstract Research Summary How does the dyadic collaborative structure between the hiring firm and the losing firm influence knowledge spillovers following an employee's move? We demonstrate that knowledge spill‐ins (to the hiring firm) and spill‐backs (to the losing firm) are the greatest when a firm with a strong collaborative density hires an employee from another firm that too has a strong collaborative density. Furthermore, such a dyadic combination results in the greatest degree of access t

Strategy and ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting
3
Article|21 citations·2023
When opportunity meets ability: The moderating effects of prolific inventors on novel drug innovation following product development failure in biotechnology
Daniel Tzabbar, Amrita Lahiri, Donghwi Seo, Warren Boeker
SJR Q1Strategic Management Journal

Abstract Research Summary Through a longitudinal study of the product development portfolios of 457 US‐based firms in the biotechnology industry, we investigate how prolific inventors shape a firm's innovative direction following product development failure. Contrary to received wisdom, we argue and demonstrate that an increase in the number of prolific inventors is associated with a decrease in firm propensity to pursue novel product innovation following such failure. We further find that the p

Strategy and ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting
4
Article|11 citations·2024
The effect of intellectual property rights on firm performance in service firms: the role of process and organizational innovation
Anna Pak, Donghwi Seo, Taewoo Roh
SJR Q1Cross Cultural & Strategic Management

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on firm performance, considering the mediating effect of process innovation and the moderating effect of organizational innovation. Additionally, this study investigates both the direct and indirect effects of IPRs on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach We employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine proposed hypotheses. Our analysis attempted to analyze 3,750 Korea

Economics and EconometricsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance
5
Article|9 citations·2023
Relationship between Racial Diversity in Medical Staff and Hospital Operational Efficiency: An Empirical Study of 3870 U.S. Hospitals
C. Christopher Lee, Young Sik Cho, Diosmedy Breen, Jessica Monroy, Donghwi Seo, Yong-Taek Min
SJR Q1Behavioral SciencesOA

Demand for foreign nurses and medical staff is rapidly increasing due to the severe labor shortage in U.S. hospitals triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, empirical studies on the effect of the racial diversity of medical staff on hospital operations are still lacking. This research gap is thus investigated based on the foreign medical staff working in 3870 U.S. hospitals. Results show that workforce racial diversity has a significantly positive relationship with hospital operational effi

Economics and EconometricsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance
6
Article|5 citations·2025
Exploring the dynamics of project failure and organizational learning in project-based firms: A study in the U.S. film industry
Anna Pak, Donghwi Seo, Taewoo Roh
SJR Q1International Journal of Project Management
Management Science and Operations ResearchDecision Sciences
7
Article|4 citations·2026
Navigating the ESG Paradox: Strategic Pathways Between Innovation and Washing Under Stakeholder Scrutiny
Min‐Jae Lee, Anna Pak, Donghwi Seo, Taewoo Roh
SJR Q1Business Strategy and the Environment

ABSTRACT As firms increasingly incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns into their strategic agendas, stakeholder legitimacy—an audience‐conferred judgment of organizational appropriateness—has become pivotal. We theorize legitimacy as expanding a hybrid response portfolio in which firms may pursue substantive change (business model innovation [BMI]) alongside symbolic communication that can become ESG washing when disproportionate to operations. Integrating legitimacy, i

MarketingBusiness, Management and Accounting
8
Book Chapter|3 citations·2020
A Bibliometric and Topic Modeling Analysis of the Structural Divide in the Multidisciplinary Research on Employee Mobility
Bruno Cirillo, Daniel Tzabbar, Donghwi Seo

Abstract Research on employee mobility has proliferated in the past four decades across four research traditions: Economics, sociology, management, and organizational behavior/human resource management. Despite significant overlap in interest and focus, these four streams of research have evolved independent from each other, resulting in a structural divide. We provide a detailed account of the research on employee mobility and the structural divide across disciplines. We document that the payof

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
9
Article|1 citations·2024
Being alert to the contingency: how environmental turbulence impacts annual report readability
Jonghyuk Bae, Donghwi Seo, Taewoo Roh
SJR Q3Applied Economics Letters

This study examines the association between environmental turbulence and annual report readability. We argue that companies operating in highly turbulent environments may exhibit lower annual report readability due to the industry’s increased environmental uncertainty. Using a sample of US firms from 1993 to 2019, we find that industry technological and market turbulence are negatively related to annual report readability. This study demonstrates the importance of considering environmental turbu

History and Philosophy of ScienceArts and Humanities
10
Article|1 citations·2013
How Do Mobility Direction and Human Assets of Mobile Engineers Affect Joint Knowledge Creation?
Jeonghwan Lee, Namgyoo Kenny Park, Donghwi Seo, Kira Choi
Academy of Management Proceedings

This study examines how engineers who moved either from targets to acquirers or vice versa prior to M&As create joint knowledge in the post-acquisition period. We investigate the effect of mobility direction and human assets on joint knowledge creation by using the data on 693 mobile engineers obtained from high-technology M&As for the period 1973-2009. Our empirical results show that the mobile engineers who moved from acquirers to targets prior to M&As create joint knowledge more by collaborat

Strategy and ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting
11
dissertation|0 citations·2015
Variational properties of the catenoid = 현수면의 변분법적 성질
Donghwi Seo, 서동휘
Applied MathematicsMathematics
12
Article|0 citations·2020
Lost but Not Gone: Dyadic Collaborative Structure and Post-Mobility Knowledge Spillover
Daniel Tzabbar, Jeong-Sik Lee, Donghwi Seo
Academy of Management Proceedings

How do differences in the collaborative structure between the hiring firm and the losing firm affect knowledge spillover following employee mobility? We demonstrate that knowledge spill-in and spill-back are the greatest when a firm with a strong collaborative density- i.e., a high level of intra-firm collaboration- hires an employee from, or loses an employee to, a firm that also has a strong collaborative density. Access to the knowledge not developed by the mobile employee is also the greates

Economics and EconometricsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance
13
Article|0 citations·2019
Can They Save the Firm From Itself? Learning From Failure and the Role of Stars in Organizations
Amrita Lahiri, Warren Boeker, Donghwi Seo
Academy of Management Proceedings

A central determinant of a firms’ competitive advantage is their ability to generate new products in the marketplace. However, in technology intensive industries, the development of new products is often fraught with uncertainty and such projects often result in failure. Although a rich body of literature has examined how firms may learn from these failures, missing from this prior work is much understanding of how key organizational players shape firms’ learning from failure incurred in the pro

Strategy and ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting
14
Article|0 citations·2023
When Opportunity Meets Ability: The Moderating Effects of Prolific Inventors on Novel Drug Innovation Following Product Failure in Biotechnology
Daniel Tzabbar, Amrita Lahiri, Donghwi Seo, Warren Boeker
SSRN Electronic JournalOA
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational HealthMedicine
15
Article|0 citations·2024
Project Failure and Exploration: The Role of Operating and Project Experiences in the Context of PBF
Anna Pak, Donghwi Seo, Taewoo Roh
Academy of Management Proceedings

Project-based firms (PBFs), due to their project-centric operational process, frequently experience routine discontinuity and organizational amnesia. These unique challenges often hinder their ability to convert experiences of failure into adaptive learning for future exploratory projects. This research, rooted in the theories of organizational learning and escalation of commitment, seeks to fill a crucial knowledge gap regarding how PBFs can effectively utilize failure experiences to facilitate

Ocean EngineeringEngineering

Research Areas

Strategy and ManagementEconomics and EconometricsOrganizational Behavior and Human Resource ManagementManagement Science and Operations ResearchMarketingSociology and Political Science

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