Cookies?
Library Header Image
LSE Research Online LSE Library Services

Geographic mobility, immobility, and geographic flexibility: a review and agenda for research on the changing geography of work

Choudhury, Prithwiraj (2022) Geographic mobility, immobility, and geographic flexibility: a review and agenda for research on the changing geography of work. Academy of Management Annals, 16 (1). pp. 258-296. ISSN 1941-6520

Full text not available from this repository.

Identification Number: 10.5465/annals.2020.0242

Abstract

In this review, I integrate a wide range of literature that has examined how the “geographic mobility” of high-skilled workers creates value for organizations and indi-viduals. Drawing on this interdisciplinary literature, I document that it 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—that act as impediments to geographic mobility. I then propose a research agenda around studying whether and how provisioning “geographic flexibility” through “work-from-anywhere” 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.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © Academy of Management Annals
Divisions: LSE
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General)
Date Deposited: 10 Jul 2025 15:21
Last Modified: 10 Jul 2025 16:03
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128783

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item