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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

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Koch & Jochen Späth & Harald Strotmann, 2013. "The role of employees for post-entry firm growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 733-755, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:41:y:2013:i:3:p:733-755
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-012-9456-6
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    5. Fackler, Daniel & Schnabel, Claus, 2013. "Survival of Spinoffs and Other Startups: First Evidence for the Private Sector in Germany, 1976-2008," IZA Discussion Papers 7542, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. 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.
    7. Andrea M. Herrmann & Cornelia Storz & Lukas Held, 2022. "Whom do nascent ventures search for? Resource scarcity and linkage formation activities during new product development processes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 475-496, January.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Start-ups; Post-entry performance; Firm growth; Human capital; Marginal employment; Germany; D22; J21; J24; L25; L26; M13;
    All these keywords.

    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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