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An established tenet of the literature isthat the use of flexible labor leads to less innovation. Yet, less attention has been paid to the possibility that it is the decision to innovate that generates the incentive to hire on a permanent basis. The goal of this paper is to show the existence of interlocking complementarities between the firm’s technological and hiring strategies. To do so, we develop a simple model where the workers’ decision to invest in human capital is affected by the type of employment contract (temporary versus permanent) and by the type of technological investments (routine versus innovative). When the firm is unable to coordinate its actions across these different domains, two equilibria simultaneously exist: in the ‘high-road’ equilibrium, firms invest more in innovative projects and hire on a permanent basis; in the ‘low-road’ equilibrium, they invest more in routine projects and hire on a temporary basis.

Stable diarylcarbenium salts, obtained by the direct coupling of indole or indole derivatives with aryl (or heteroaryl) aldehydes in the presence of a strong organic Brønsted acid, have been employed in the direct alkylation of aldehydes. Excellent enantiomeric excesses and good diastereomeric ratios were obtained with a number of aryl or heteroaryl(3-indolyl)carbenium ions as the highly stable o-benzenedisulfonimide (OBS) salts and with the reaction promoted by the Hayashi–Jørgensen catalyst. A one-pot, three-component, stereoselective alkylation of aldehydes affording the same compounds was also investigated with various aldehydes, indole derivatives, and organocatalysts. The results obtained with the isolated carbenium ions were superior in terms of yields and stereoselectivity.