Bridging Strategic Human Capital and Employee Entrepreneurship Research: A Labor Market Frictions Approach

Abstract

Research summary Strategic human capital research sits at the intersection of strategy and employee mobility research. Employee entrepreneurship research sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship and employee mobility research. We demonstrate how a shared focus on labor market frictions connects these two complementary but largely disparate literatures through their mutual emphasis on employee mobility. Our examination of the impact of various labor market frictions on employee mobility to competitor firms and employee transitions to entrepreneurship suggests that the outcomes of some frictions are divergent across the two literatures, the outcomes of some are aligned, and the outcomes of some are ambiguous. The complex interplay of labor market frictions provides opportunities for future research specifically exploring the intersection of the strategic human capital and employee entrepreneurship literatures. Managerial summary Our research suggests that some factors that prevent employees from leaving their employers to join competitor companies may also keep those employees from leaving to start new companies. Other factors that prevent employees from leaving their employers, however, may actually encourage employees to leave to start new companies. We identify areas for future research to help us understand better when companies’ efforts to hold on to their workers are effective at preventing both movement to competitor companies as well as to entrepreneurship. Copyright © 2017 Strategic Management Society.