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New ventures fighting the war for talents: the impact of product innovativeness and entrepreneurs’ passion on applicant attraction

Author

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  • Evila Piva

    (Politecnico Di Milano)

  • Silvia Stroe

    (University of St. Gallen)

Abstract

An unanswered question in studies on recruiting in new ventures is how entrepreneurs can persuasively communicate to job seekers information about their ventures’ unique features to attract applicants. By building on nonverbal communication research, we investigate how verbally communicated product innovativeness and entrepreneurs’ nonverbal displays of passion affect applicant attraction both separately and in combination. We find applicant attraction is positively related to both communicated product innovativeness and entrepreneurs’ displays of moderate passion and negatively related to excessive displays of passion. Moreover, our findings suggest that displays of high passion distract job seekers from processing the semantic content of recruitment messages.

Suggested Citation

  • Evila Piva & Silvia Stroe, 2023. "New ventures fighting the war for talents: the impact of product innovativeness and entrepreneurs’ passion on applicant attraction," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1133-1159, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:61:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11187-022-00714-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-022-00714-6
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