Prior research has shown that immigrants make important contributions to US innovation and are more likely than natives to become entrepreneurs. However, there is little evidence on how foreign and native high-skilled workers differ prior to entering the workforce. Moreover, little attention has...

Entrepreneurial ventures rely not only on founders, but also on “joiners” – start-up employees who are attracted to entrepreneurship but who do not want to be founders themselves. Drawing upon both preference and contextual theories of entrepreneurship, we examine how individuals’...

Drawing on research in economics and social psychology and using survey data from over 10,000 scientists and engineers (SESTAT 2003), I examine the relationships between individuals' pecuniary and nonpecuniary motives and incentives, innovative effort, and innovative performance in firms. I find...

Early-stage technology startups rely critically on talented scientists and engineers to commercialize new technologies. And yet, they compete with large technology firms to hire the best workers. Theories of ability sorting predict that high ability workers will choose jobs in established firms...