The valorization of employment: How communities and founders shape new venture outcomes
Abstract
This study examines the conditions under which new ventures valorize employment as a strategic orientation. Challenging conventional efficiency-based views of entrepreneurship, we theorize that such employment valorization emerges not from financial constraints but from founder community origin. Specifically, we argue that founder origin, venture location, and local multiplex relationships shape the valorization of employment. We argue that these conditions foster commitments to community stakeholders, reconfiguring employment from an economic input into a core purpose of firms. Using a dataset of 25,905 ventures founded in Japan between 1998 and 2007, our findings extend research on entrepreneurship and community by showing how place-based founder ties and relational engagement shape employment decisions in new ventures.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences
Migration
Ethnicity
and Economy
Innovation and Socioeconomic Development
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Business Venturing
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 106585–106585
- Publication date
- 18 February 2026
- Language
- EN