Work Experience Spanning Organization Types and Entrepreneurship

24 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2013 Last revised: 4 Mar 2016

See all articles by Charles E. Eesley

Charles E. Eesley

Stanford University - Management Science & Engineering

Delin Yang

Tsinghua University

Xinyi Yang

Stanford University

Date Written: February 3, 2016

Abstract

We examine how the movement of individuals during their career paths across multiple organization types shapes their entrepreneurial behavior. Using novel survey data, we find that individuals with work experience in multiple types of organizations were more likely to enter entrepreneurship. In contrast to prior work that examines skills-based mechanisms of this relationship, we argue that work experience from multiple organization types acts via affecting cognition, finding support for this in a follow up, randomized lab experiment. We conclude by discussing the empirical and theoretical importance of more deeply understanding the patterns of career experience and cognitive mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

Eesley, Charles E. and Yang, Delin and Yang, Xinyi, Work Experience Spanning Organization Types and Entrepreneurship (February 3, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2207553 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2207553

Charles E. Eesley (Contact Author)

Stanford University - Management Science & Engineering ( email )

473 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305-9025
United States

HOME PAGE: http://chuckeesley.com

Delin Yang

Tsinghua University ( email )

Beijing, 100084
China

Xinyi Yang

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

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