Suchergebnisse

The practice of recruiting job candidates sourced through social contacts (i.e., referrals) is pervasive in the labor market. One reason employers prefer to recruit through referrals is that these candidates often present resumes that are perceived to be a better fit for the role. Whereas existing research attributes this pattern to how individuals who make referrals (i.e., referrers) select individuals to refer, we propose a new mechanism: differences in self-presentation. We argue that referral ties increase the candidates' propensity to engage in self-presentation work, motivating and assisting candidates in presenting their backgrounds to convey fit. We examine this claim by utilizing unique data from an applicant-tracking system containing job applications for positions at U.S.-based high-tech firms between 2008 and 2012. A candidate fixed-effects specification reveals that when a candidate applies to a firm via a referral, he or she tends to showcase a rendition of his or her career history that better matches the target job than when the candidate pursues positions without such ties. Several mechanism checks, combined with supplementary survey evidence, further indicate that the presence of referral ties to the target firm is associated with greater motivation to engage in self-presentation work as well as the provision of different forms of assistance in that work. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16674 .

The need to resolve work–family conflict has long been considered a central motive for women's pursuit of entrepreneurship. In this paper, we propose and empirically uncover a novel mechanism driving female entrepreneurship: reduced earnings opportunities in wage employment due to motherhood status. Combining insights from career mobility research and the motherhood penalty literature, we propose that women who become mothers will disproportionately launch a new business to reduce the motherhood penalty they would otherwise incur in wage work due to employer discrimination. We further predict that this tendency to launch a new venture will be more pronounced for women who occupy high-paying or managerial positions, given the higher opportunity cost of staying in wage work and the higher potential payoffs from entrepreneurship that accrue mothers occupying such positions. Using matched employer–employee data from Sweden that distinguish new-venture founding from self-employment, we find support for our arguments. Overall, this study sheds light on the two antecedents of female entrepreneurship and contributes to a more thorough understanding of what motivates women to pursue irregular and atypical careers, such as entrepreneurship. Funding: This work was supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Ewing Marion Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship) and the Wharton Dean's Research Fund. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1657 .