Employee Mobility in Family and Non-Family Firms: The Role of Family Firm-Specific Human Capital

Abstract

Drawing on human capital theory of employee mobility, we develop theory regarding family firm-specific human capital. Specifically, we argue that nonfamily employees of family firms are less likely to change their job than employees of nonfamily firms. We then examine employees’ mobility and the compensation outcome when such jobs changes occur. To examine these relationships, we utilize a unique dataset of all Swedish employees’ job changes from 2001 to 2012. Overall, with supportive empirical results, the present study offers a deeper understanding of employees’ mobility towards family and nonfamily private firms.