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The role of employees for post-entry firm growth

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  • Andreas Koch
  • Jochen Späth

    ()

  • Harald Strotmann

Abstract

While the majority of existing studies on the determinants of post-entry firm growth focus on the role of the founders or on the impact of firm-specific characteristics, possible effects of the characteristics of a start-up’s workforce have been widely neglected to date. In this paper we examine the role of initial worker and job characteristics (e.g., qualification, age, workload, marginal employment) of start-ups for their post‐entry employment growth. The analyses are based upon a capacious panel dataset comprising a representative 50 % sample of establishments in Germany. Our empirical results show that, inter alia, high-skilled and young workers are conducive to growth in terms of both the number of employees and full-time equivalents. With respect to flexible work forms, however, establishments using part-time employment show higher post‐entry growth only in terms of total hours worked, but a significantly lower growth with respect to the number of employees. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11187-012-9456-6
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Article provided by Springer in its journal Small Business Economics.

Volume (Year): 41 (2013)
Issue (Month): 3 (October)
Pages: 733-755

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Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:41:y:2013:i:3:p:733-755
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=100338

Keywords: Start-ups; Post-entry performance; Firm growth; Human capital; Marginal employment; Germany; D22; J21; J24; L25; L26; M13;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
  • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

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Cited by:

  1. Fackler, Daniel & Schnabel, Claus, 2013. "Survival of spinoffs and other startups: First evidence for the private sector in Germany, 1976-2008," Discussion Papers 84, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
  2. Vera Rocha & Mirjam van Praag & Timothy B. Folta & Anabela Carneiro, 2016. "Entrepreneurial Choices of Initial Human Capital Endowments and New Venture Success," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 16-030/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
  3. Fackler, Daniel, 2014. "Establishment survival in East and West Germany: A comparative analysis," Discussion Papers 90, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
  4. Daniel Fackler & Claus Schnabel & Alexandra Schmucker, 2016. "Spinoffs in Germany: characteristics, survival, and the role of their parents," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 93-114, January.

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