Discussion: View Thread

  • 1.  Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses

    Posted 10-23-2009 18:57
    Please post on BPS-NET listserv...

    Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses:

    I am looking for any publications that might provide evidence that employees of start-ups and/or small businesses work harder (or work longer hours, or have higher productivity, or work faster) than their counterparts at larger, more established companies.  

    Any type of evidence is OK -- systematic or anecdotal.  
    Any source is OK -- research, journalism, memoirs, etc.

    I am also looking for any research literature that might attempt to explain WHY this phenomenon occurs -- i.e., why employees work harder, longer, faster, or more productively at start-ups or small businesses than at larger, more established companies.

    Any type of research is OK -- theoretical or empirical

    Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

    Best regards,
    Rich Makadok

    --------------------------
    Richard J. Makadok
    Associate Professor
    Goizueta Business School
    Emory University
    1300 Clifton Road
    Atlanta, GA 30322-2710

    voice (404) 727-8639
    fax (404) 727-6313





  • 2.  Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses

    Posted 10-23-2009 21:05

    Rich,

     

    We have an NBER working paper that looks at effort and performance using a large sample of scientists and engineers. We don't focus on startups in that paper, but we do find significantly higher effort in young (rather than small) firms.  The abstract is below.

     

    Thanks,

    Henry

     

     

     

    What Makes Them Tick? Employee Motives and Firm Innovation


    Henry Sauermann 
    Georgia Institute of Technology - College of Management

    Wesley M. Cohen 
    Duke University - Fuqua School of Business; Duke University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)


    October 2008

    NBER Working Paper No. W14443 


    Abstract:      
    We examine the impact of individual-level motives upon innovative effort and performance in firms. Drawing from economics and social psychology, we develop a model of the impact of individuals' motives and incentives upon their innovative effort and performance. Using data on over 11,000 industrial scientists and engineers (SESTAT 2003), we find that individuals' motives have significant effects upon innovative effort and performance. These effects vary significantly, however, by the particular kind of motive (e.g., desire for intellectual challenge vs. pay). We also find that intrinsic and extrinsic motives affect innovative performance even when controlling for effort, suggesting that motives affect not only the level of individual effort, but also its quality. Overall, intrinsic motives, particularly the desire for intellectual challenge, appear to benefit innovation more than extrinsic motives such as pay.

    JEL Classifications: O3, O30, O31, O32

    Working Paper Series

     

    From: Business Policy and Strategy List [mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Rich Makadok
    Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 6:57 PM
    To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses

     

    Please post on BPS-NET listserv...

     

    Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses:

     

    I am looking for any publications that might provide evidence that employees of start-ups and/or small businesses work harder (or work longer hours, or have higher productivity, or work faster) than their counterparts at larger, more established companies.  

     

    Any type of evidence is OK -- systematic or anecdotal.  

    Any source is OK -- research, journalism, memoirs, etc.

     

    I am also looking for any research literature that might attempt to explain WHY this phenomenon occurs -- i.e., why employees work harder, longer, faster, or more productively at start-ups or small businesses than at larger, more established companies.

     

    Any type of research is OK -- theoretical or empirical

     

    Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

     

    Best regards,

    Rich Makadok

     

    --------------------------

    Richard J. Makadok

    Associate Professor

    Goizueta Business School

    Emory University

    1300 Clifton Road

    Atlanta, GA 30322-2710

     

    voice (404) 727-8639

    fax (404) 727-6313

     

    Rich_Makadok@bus.emory.edu

    http://www.bus.emory.edu/Rmakadok/Professional/

     



  • 3.  Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses

    Posted 10-24-2009 11:59
    Hi Rich,
     
    Have you thought about linking it to reputation? The argument would be that people / firms make investments that build reputation with the expectation that they can then cash in on the reputation later on.  I believe that Gompers & Lerner find that new VCs behave differently than more established VCs in their handling of portfolio firms and I believe the logic of their argument is similar to the reputation argument above.
     
    Another approach might be to argue that people/firms work hard until they get entrenched and then slack off. This would be consistent with the Morck Shleifer and Vishny paper on the effects of managerial ownership
     
    Of course reputation and entrecnment occur at the individual and firm levels and what happens at one level is likely to influence the other. Consequently, you should consider whether a multi-level theory may be useful.
     
    Hope these ideas are helpful.
     
    Best,
     
    Eric

    On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Rich Makadok <Rich_Makadok@bus.emory.edu> wrote:
    Please post on BPS-NET listserv...

    Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses:

    I am looking for any publications that might provide evidence that employees of start-ups and/or small businesses work harder (or work longer hours, or have higher productivity, or work faster) than their counterparts at larger, more established companies.  

    Any type of evidence is OK -- systematic or anecdotal.  
    Any source is OK -- research, journalism, memoirs, etc.

    I am also looking for any research literature that might attempt to explain WHY this phenomenon occurs -- i.e., why employees work harder, longer, faster, or more productively at start-ups or small businesses than at larger, more established companies.

    Any type of research is OK -- theoretical or empirical

    Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

    Best regards,
    Rich Makadok

    --------------------------
    Richard J. Makadok
    Associate Professor
    Goizueta Business School
    Emory University
    1300 Clifton Road
    Atlanta, GA 30322-2710

    voice (404) 727-8639
    fax (404) 727-6313






    --

    Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/gedajlovic

    -Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how


  • 4.  Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses

    Posted 10-24-2009 17:29
    Hi Rich:
    You might find something useful in:
    Baron, J.N & Hannan, M.T. (2002). Organizational Blueprints for Success in High-Tech Start-Ups: Lessons from the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies, California Management Review, Vol. 44(3): 36-66.


    The authors indirectly link productivity and organizational culture to the implicit assumptions founders make about people-related issues.


    Cheers,
    Samir




    ==========================
    "We know too little to be dogmatists and too much to be sceptics" -- Pascal

    Samir Shrivastava, PhD, MBA
    DHOG (Assurance of Learning)
    Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisation Studies
    Faculty of Business & Enterprise
    Swinburne University of Technology
    John St, Hawthorn VIC 3122
    Australia
    Tel: + 61 3 9214 5350 (work)
    Fax: + 61 3 98192117
    Web: http://www.swin.edu.au/business/stafflist/staff/sshrivastava.html

    2008 SWINBURNE CENTENARY
    Celebrating A Century of Vision
    www.swinburne.edu.au/centenary
    ==========================


  • 5.  Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses

    Posted 10-24-2009 22:09
    Rich,

    The two papers below provide empirical evidence of higher effort levels in small firms relative to large firms.  They also explore explanations for these higher effort levels that relate to incentive differences in firms of differing size.    

    Todd Zenger.  "Explaining Organizational Diseconomies of Scale in R&D: The Allocation of Engineering Talent, Ideas, and Effort by Firm Size." Management Science, 1994, 40(6):708-729.

    Eric Rasmusen and Todd Zenger. "Diseconomies of Scale in Employment Contracts." Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 6.1 (1990): 65-92.

    I hope this is helpful.

    Todd  

    On 10/23/09 5:56 PM, "Rich Makadok" <Rich_Makadok@BUS.EMORY.EDU> wrote:

    Please post on BPS-NET listserv...

    Seeking info about employees of start-ups & small businesses:

    I am looking for any publications that might provide evidence that employees of start-ups and/or small businesses work harder (or work longer hours, or have higher productivity, or work faster) than their counterparts at larger, more established companies.  

    Any type of evidence is OK -- systematic or anecdotal.  
    Any source is OK -- research, journalism, memoirs, etc.

    I am also looking for any research literature that might attempt to explain WHY this phenomenon occurs -- i.e., why employees work harder, longer, faster, or more productively at start-ups or small businesses than at larger, more established companies.

    Any type of research is OK -- theoretical or empirical

    Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

    Best regards,
    Rich Makadok

    --------------------------
    Richard J. Makadok
    Associate Professor
    Goizueta Business School
    Emory University
    1300 Clifton Road
    Atlanta, GA 30322-2710

    voice (404) 727-8639
    fax (404) 727-6313

    Rich_Makadok@bus.emory.edu
    http://www.bus.emory.edu/Rmakadok/Professional/