Making The World A Better Place With You?

Abstract

Entrepreneurs communicate social visions to convince talent to join their venture. Social visions present a future where the venture addresses environmental and/or societal issues. In line with the rising interest in for-profit social ventures, prior research has documented the benefits of social vision communication, albeit in established organizations, thus overlooking how social visions attract talent in entrepreneurial contexts. With results from two complementary studies, we challenge the positive stance in prior research. Using data from a job board for start-up ventures we show that social visions attract less talent. In a field experiment with 102 job seekers, we find that this is because social visions limit job seekers’ perceived opportunity for achievement at the venture, prompting higher salary demands. These findings advance research on entrepreneurship, human resources and vision communication, and caution entrepreneurs against social vision communication as a recruitment strategy.