Right time or the right person? Investigating the hires of high-growth new ventures

Sven-Olov Daunfeldt, Alexander McKelvie () and Hans Seerar Westerberg ()
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Alexander McKelvie: Syracuse University, New York, United States., https://chancellor.syr.edu/university-leadership-2/chancellors-council/alexander-mckelvie/
Hans Seerar Westerberg: Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut), Postal: Handelns Forskningsinstitut, Regeringsgatan 60, 103 29 Stockholm, Sweden, https://hfi.se/forskare/hans-seerar-westerberg/

No 25, HFI Working Papers from Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut)

Abstract: Hiring new employees is an important part of a new venture’s growth. However, we still have limited understanding of the human capital needs of high-growth new ventures, and how their pace of growth relates to whom they hire. We contribute to the literature by investigating 64,404 hires among growing new ventures in Sweden from 2008 to 2015, finding that individuals with higher educational attainment and previous management experience are more likely to be hired by high-growth new ventures. In contrast, we find no indications that unemployed individuals or people that are outside the labor force are more likely to be hired by the fastest growing new ventures. High-growth new ventures are thus more selective in their hiring decisions than new ventures with lower sales growth rates, suggesting that ‘the right person’ is more important than ‘the right time’. These differences in hiring practices are most prevalent during new ventures’ first three years of operation and become more negligible as the ventures age.

Keywords: Hiring; High-growth new ventures; Firm growth; Human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D21 D22 J63 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2023-01-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-eur, nep-ino, nep-mac and nep-sbm
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