This special issue of Small Business Economics is open to contributions that rigorously address important and understudied issues related to entrepreneurial founder transitions to organizational employment. While transitions from employment into entrepreneurship has been extensively studied, founder transitions to organizational employment have received much less scholarly attention. This is surprising given the prevalence of the phenomenon (Burton et al., 2016; De Vos et al., 2021; Mahieu et al., 2021). For instance, a study in Belgium found that 85% of entrepreneurs who exited their businesses between 2004 and 2016 transitioned to paid employment (Mahieu et al., 2022). Likewise, over half of the entrepreneurs tracked in the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1991 to 2016 made at least one transition from self-employment to paid employment (Koch et al., 2021).
DEADLINE
Submission of full papers on SBEJ website: June 30, 2025
RELEVANCE AND NOVELTY
This special issue solicits rigorous theoretical and/or empirical studies that draw on various theoretical perspectives to examine the widespread phenomenon of organizationally employed former entrepreneurs. For example, a resource-based view could be used to understand how the former entrepreneur can contribute to the organization that they have joined (Ployhart, 2021). Socially-situated cognition theory (Mitchell et al., 2011) might be used to understand the situated and distributed nature of the cognitive processes that enable and/or constrain the former entrepreneur in contributing to the organization. Attraction-selection-attrition theory could clarify how former entrepreneurs adapt to a new work environment (Ahmetoglu et al., 2021; Hsu et al., 2017). Institutional theory may be helpful to understand how entrepreneurs gain legitimacy as potential employees and/or how differences in cultural and institutional environments shape entrepreneurial traits (Boudreaux et al., 2021; Mueller & Thomas, 2001; Nikolaev & Bennett, 2016) that may influence occupational choice dynamics (Gohmann, 2012). Theoretical perspectives that account for experiences of women, minorities, and those coming from underserved backgrounds can provide novel insights as the experience of entrepreneurship is always embedded in its societal context. In addition to advancing the theoretical understanding of this multi-faceted phenomenon, the special issue also encourages a wide variety of empirical approaches. Understanding this phenomenon in a robust way will also have practical implications for organizations or policymakers that seek to leverage the unique knowledge, skills, mindsets, and experiences of former entrepreneurs.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Daniel L. Bennett, University of Louisville
Jeffrey Hornsby, University of Missouri Kansas City
Dan Hsu, North Dakota State University
Rob Mitchell, Colorado State University
Boris Nikolaev, Colorado State University
Maija Renko, Aalto University
MORE INFORMATION
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Daniel L. Bennett
Cobb Family Chair in Entrepreneurship
College of Business
University of Louisville
Daniel.Bennett.2@Louisville.edu------------------------------