IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v64y2018i2p552-572.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Screening Spinouts? How Noncompete Enforceability Affects the Creation, Growth, and Survival of New Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Evan Starr

    (Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742)

  • Natarajan Balasubramanian

    (Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244)

  • Natarajan Balasubramanian

    (Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles)

Abstract

This paper examines how the enforceability of noncompete covenants affects the creation, growth, and survival of spinouts and other new entrants. The impact of noncompete enforceability on new firms is ambiguous, since noncompetes reduce knowledge leakage but impose hiring costs. However, we posit that enforceability screens formation of within-industry spinouts (WSOs) relative to non-WSOs by dissuading founders with lower human capital. Using data on 5.5 million new firms, we find greater enforceability is associated with fewer WSOs, but relative to non-WSOs, WSOs that are created tend to start and stay larger, are founded by higher-earners, and are more likely to survive their initial years. In contrast, we find no impact on non-WSO entry and a negative effect on size and short-term survival. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2614 . This paper was accepted by David Hsu, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Evan Starr & Natarajan Balasubramanian & Natarajan Balasubramanian, 2018. "Screening Spinouts? How Noncompete Enforceability Affects the Creation, Growth, and Survival of New Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 552-572, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:64:y:2018:i:2:p:552-572
    DOI: mnsc.2016.2614
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/mnsc.2016.2614
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/mnsc.2016.2614?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hart, Oliver & Moore, John, 1990. "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1119-1158, December.
    2. Bruce Fallick & Charles A. Fleischman & James B. Rebitzer, 2006. "Job-Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Microfoundations of a High-Technology Cluster," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(3), pages 472-481, August.
    3. April M. Franco & Matthew F. Mitchell, 2008. "Covenants not to Compete, Labor Mobility, and Industry Dynamics," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 581-606, September.
    4. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    5. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, 2003. "Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Capital Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 281-315.
    6. James E. Rauch & Joel Watson, 2015. "Client-Based Entrepreneurship," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 30-60.
    7. Kurt Lavetti & Carol Simon & William D. White, 2020. "The Impacts of Restricting Mobility of Skilled Service Workers: Evidence from Physicians," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(3), pages 1025-1067.
    8. Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y. & Dunkelberg, William C., 1989. "Entrepreneurship and the initial size of firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(5), pages 317-332, September.
    9. Matt Marx & Deborah Strumsky & Lee Fleming, 2009. "Mobility, Skills, and the Michigan Non-Compete Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 875-889, June.
    10. Sampsa Samila & Olav Sorenson, 2011. "Noncompete Covenants: Incentives to Innovate or Impediments to Growth," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 425-438, March.
    11. Martin Ganco & Rosemarie H. Ziedonis & Rajshree Agarwal, 2015. "More stars stay, but the brightest ones still leave: Job hopping in the shadow of patent enforcement," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 659-685, May.
    12. Steven Klepper & Sally Sleeper, 2005. "Entry by Spinoffs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1291-1306, August.
    13. Klepper, Steven, 2001. "Employee Startups in High-Tech Industries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 10(3), pages 639-674, September.
    14. David H. Autor & John J. Donohue & Stewart J. Schwab, 2006. "The Costs of Wrongful-Discharge Laws," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 211-231, May.
    15. Mark J. Garmaise, 2011. "Ties that Truly Bind: Noncompetition Agreements, Executive Compensation, and Firm Investment," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 376-425.
    16. Benjamin A. Campbell & Martin Ganco & April M. Franco & Rajshree Agarwal, 2012. "Who leaves, where to, and why worry? employee mobility, entrepreneurship and effects on source firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 65-87, January.
    17. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    18. Meccheri, Nicola, 2009. "A note on noncompetes, bargaining and training by firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 198-200, March.
    19. Marx, Matt & Singh, Jasjit & Fleming, Lee, 2015. "Regional disadvantage? Employee non-compete agreements and brain drain," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 394-404.
    20. Hopenhayn, Hugo A, 1992. "Entry, Exit, and Firm Dynamics in Long Run Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(5), pages 1127-1150, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laurel J. Fish & Dennis Halcoussis & G. Michael Phillips, 2021. "Price‐Parity Adjustments Shouldn'T Be A Trade Secret: State‐Level Price Parity And Assessment Of Covenants Not To Compete Enforceability," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 220-235, January.
    2. Bennett, Daniel L. & Wagner, Gary & Araki, Michael, 2024. "Labor market reform as an external enabler of high-growth entrepreneurship: A multi-level institutional contingency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(6).
    3. Raffaele Conti & Olenka Kacperczyk & Giovanni Valentini, 2022. "Institutional protection of minority employees and entrepreneurship: Evidence from the LGBT Employment Non‐Discrimination Acts," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 758-791, April.
    4. Bahoo-Torodi, Aliasghar & Torrisi, Salvatore, 2022. "When do spinouts benefit from market overlap with parent firms?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(6).
    5. Mariko Sakakibara & Natarajan Balasubramanian, 2020. "Human capital, parent size, and the destination industry of spinouts," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 815-840, May.
    6. Evan Starr, 2019. "Consider This: Training, Wages, and the Enforceability of Covenants Not to Compete," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(4), pages 783-817, August.
    7. Bai, John (Jianqiu) & Eldemire, Ashleigh & Serfling, Matthew, 2024. "The effect of labor mobility on corporate investment and performance over the business cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Abigail Ferguson & Nellie Lew & Michael Lipsitz & Devesh Raval, 2023. "Economics at the FTC: Spatial Demand, Veterinary Hospital Mergers, Rulemaking, and Noncompete Agreements," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 63(4), pages 435-465, December.
    9. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Adina D. Sterling, 2018. "(When) Is Hiring Strategic? Human Capital Acquisition in the Age of Algorithms," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 668-682, December.
    10. Sam Arts & Lee Fleming, 2018. "Paradise of Novelty—Or Loss of Human Capital? Exploring New Fields and Inventive Output," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1074-1092, December.
    11. Hyo Kang & Wyatt Lee, 2022. "How innovating firms manage knowledge leakage: A natural experiment on the threat of worker departure," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(10), pages 1961-1982, October.
    12. Contigiani, Andrea & Testoni, Marco, 2023. "Geographic isolation, trade secrecy, and innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    13. Oz Shy & Rune Stenbacka, 2023. "Noncompete agreements, training, and wage competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 328-347, April.
    14. Alan Manning, 2021. "Monopsony in Labor Markets: A Review," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(1), pages 3-26, January.
    15. Natarajan Balasubramanian & Mariko Sakakibara, 2021. "Incidence and Performance of Spinouts and Incumbent New Ventures: Role of Selection and Redeployability within Parent Firms," Working Papers 21-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. Sascha G. Walter, 2024. "Spin-outs’ knowledge legacies and parent hostility: a competitive dynamics view," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 1019-1039, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Evan Starr & Natarajan Balasubramanian & Mariko Sakakibara, 2014. "Enforcing Covenants Not To Compete: The Life-Cycle Impact On New Firms," Working Papers 14-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. He, Zhaozhao, 2018. "Money held for moving stars: Talent competition and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 210-234.
    3. F.C. Stam, 2019. "The Case against Non-Compete Agreements," Working Papers 19-20, Utrecht School of Economics.
    4. Evan Starr & Justin Frake & Rajshree Agarwal, 2019. "Mobility Constraint Externalities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 961-980, September.
    5. Buenstorf, Guido & Engel, Christoph & Fischer, Sven & Gueth, Werner, 2016. "Non-compete clauses, employee effort and spin-off entrepreneurship: A laboratory experiment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2113-2124.
    6. Kenneth A. Younge & Tony W. Tong & Lee Fleming, 2015. "How anticipated employee mobility affects acquisition likelihood: Evidence from a natural experiment," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 686-708, May.
    7. Evan Starr, 2019. "Consider This: Training, Wages, and the Enforceability of Covenants Not to Compete," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(4), pages 783-817, August.
    8. Michael Lipsitz & Evan Starr, 2022. "Low-Wage Workers and the Enforceability of Noncompete Agreements," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 143-170, January.
    9. Yang, Chia-Hsuan & Nugent, Rebecca & Fuchs, Erica R.H., 2016. "Gains from others’ losses: Technology trajectories and the global division of firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 724-745.
    10. Rauch, James E., 2016. "Dynastic entrepreneurship, entry, and non-compete enforcement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 188-201.
    11. Guido Bünstorf & Christoph Engel & Sven Fischer & Werner Güth, 2013. "Win Shift Lose Stay - An Experimental Test of Non-Compete Clauses," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2013_17, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    12. Teng Wang, 2017. "To Build or to Buy? The Role of Local Information in Credit Market Development," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-013, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Bennett, Daniel L. & Wagner, Gary & Araki, Michael, 2024. "Labor market reform as an external enabler of high-growth entrepreneurship: A multi-level institutional contingency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(6).
    14. Suman Ghosh & Kameshwari Shankar, 2017. "Optimal Enforcement Of Noncompete Covenants," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 305-318, January.
    15. Bai, John (Jianqiu) & Eldemire, Ashleigh & Serfling, Matthew, 2024. "The effect of labor mobility on corporate investment and performance over the business cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    16. Ji Youn (Rose) Kim & H. Kevin Steensma, 2017. "Employee mobility, spin-outs, and knowledge spill-in: How incumbent firms can learn from new ventures," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(8), pages 1626-1645, August.
    17. Liyan Shi, 2021. "The Macro Impact of Noncompete Contracts," EIEF Working Papers Series 2103, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised 2021.
    18. Simeth, Markus & Mohammadi, Ali, 2017. "The impact of open innovation on employee mobility and entrepreneurship," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 449, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    19. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    20. Pontus Braunerhjelm & Ding Ding & Per Thulin, 2018. "The knowledge spillover theory of intrapreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 1-30, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:64:y:2018:i:2:p:552-572. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.