Introduction to a Special Issue on Entrepreneurship and Employment: Connecting Labor Market Institutions, Corporate Demography, and Human Resource Management Practices

With the growing attention to entrepreneurship as an engine of job creation and economic development, it is important for social scientists who are broadly interested in labor market and employment topics to focus attention on new firms and the policies and practices that surround them. The authors argue that the next generation of scholarship should pay particular attention to labor market institutions, the ecosystem of existing employers, and the human resource management practices that provide the strategic context for entrepreneurs and shape the career opportunities for workers. Remarkable variation occurs across space and time in the prevalence and performance of entrepreneurs. There are also many open questions as to the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurship, for entrepreneurs, their communities, and their employees. The availability of new administrative data across many countries will allow for comparative cross-national studies and will provide opportunities to bring qualitative and mixed-method approaches to entrepreneurial labor market studies. This introduction and the articles in this special issue offer a path forward.