Washington: Managers seeking to prise star performers away from competitors might rue their decision later and the star is likely to be as unhappy, finds a new study.

In their study, the authors addressed questions like whether switching firms have an effect on the short-term and long-term performance of stars? And is hiring a star a value-enhancing or value-destroying activity for a firm?

From an empirical analysis over eight years (1988-1996), they found hiring stars is neither advantageous to stars themselves, in terms of performance, nor to hiring companies in terms of their market value.

The performance of a talented worker depends in part on firm-specific human capital embedded in colleague relationships and firm capabilities.

The issue of whether workers' performance is portable across firms is relevant for firms that seek to build a sustainable competitive advantage on star talent.

The authors find that stars are imperfectly mobile resources that can represent a potential source of sustained competitive advantage for firms.

The findings suggest that managers hiring stars and the stars themselves should be wary of decline in performance following moves to a new firm.

Authored by Boris Groysberg, Linda-Eling Lee of Harvard Business School and Ashish Nanda of Harvard Law School, the study has been published in the current issue of Management Science.