"Entrepreneurial Labor Markets: Careers, Hiring and Diversity"

Hiring non-founding employees is one of the first major organizational transitions that entrepreneurial firms face as they move from founding teams to full-fledged organizations. This symposium explores the antecedents and consequences of hiring by entrepreneurial firms. While research in strategy and entrepreneurship has started to explore general processes in how new firms grow and shape the next generation of industry and society, gaps remain in our understanding of crucial early hires and entrepreneurial firms’ goals when hiring. The papers featured are aimed at addressing these gaps. This session will feature four papers that explore: (1) the types of individuals who join start-ups compared to those who work in established firms, (2) the long-term implications of entrepreneurial employment on wages, (3) the effects of founders’ backgrounds and accelerator cohort experience on the nature and timing of early hires, and (4) the relationship between new venture workforce diversity and performance. Who Wo...