How entrepreneur’s leadership behavior and demographics shape applicant attraction to new ventures: the role of stereotypes

Abstract

Given the challenges of new ventures to attract applicants, this paper focuses on the influence of applicants’ perceptions of entrepreneurs for new venture recruitment. Based on role congruity theory, we propose that organizational attractiveness increases when entrepreneurs show entrepreneurial leadership, which fits the new venture context, and that this effect is mediated by perceived authenticity. Moreover, we propose this effect is particularly pertinent when entrepreneurs are young and male and thus fit the prevailing demographic stereotype of entrepreneurs. In our experiment (n = 503), we found the positive effect of showing entrepreneurial leadership on organizational attractiveness via authenticity perceptions, and this effect was stronger if the entrepreneur was young – the entrepreneur’s gender did not moderate the relationship. We discuss the implications of our study for research and practice in recruitment and entrepreneurship.

Keywords:

• Entrepreneur’s age and gender
• entrepreneurial leadership
• new ventures
• recruitment
• stereotypes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.