This conceptual article introduces knowledge-centric recruitment (KCR) as a distinct dynamic capability that reframes recruitment and post-hire socialization as strategic knowledge-development activities. (1) Background: Unlike conventional vacancy-driven approaches, KCR is a proactive process through which firms deliberately access and import external organizational capabilities embodied in senior professionals—termed knowledge-hires—from rival organizations. These knowledge-hires embody tacit, socio-cognitive building blocks of capabilities developed through involvement in their prior employers’ routines and practices. (2) Methods: This article develops a micro-foundational model of KCR comprising four interrelated processes: external capability scanning and prioritization, identification of target capabilities and knowledge-hires, evaluation through the novel lens of contextual capability fit, and expectations of adaptation during onboarding. (3) Results: Contextual capability fit integrates complementary and supplementary quality with knowledge distance to enable firms to forecast both the strategic value of inbound capabilities and the hire’s expected socialization difficulty. (4) Conclusions: The primary theoretical contribution lies in advancing the learning-by-hiring literature by shifting the focus from passive knowledge diffusion to deliberate, calculative capability acquisition. By integrating insights from the knowledge-based view, person–organization fit, absorptive capacity, and strategic recruitment, the KCR model offers a coherent micro-foundational framework for transforming employee mobility into a source of sustained competitive advantage.
Blaskó et al. (2026) studied this question.