Management Science · 2026 · Francesco Castellaneta、Raffaele Conti、Aleksandra Joanna Kacperczyk
中文摘要
女性不仅作为创业企业创始人的比例偏低，作为非创始员工（“加入者”）的比例同样偏低。然而，关于如何缓解这一差距，现有认识仍然有限。传统解释强调个体的就业偏好，而我们则将关注点转向雇主的决策。我们提出，较弱的雇佣保护——即降低解雇成本——会提高女性相对于男性被创业企业而非现有企业录用的可能性，因为这会增强雇主尝试那些传统上被忽视的候选人的灵活性。我们进一步假设，当信息线索能够抵消关于女性雇员的刻板印象时，例如当（a）女性具有创始人经历，或（b）目标创业企业所处行业中女性雇员或女性创业企业雇员的比例较高时，这一效应会较弱。我们利用2009年至2013年葡萄牙新雇员登记数据，并采用时间断点回归（RDiT）设计，为上述预测提供了经验支持。我们的研究凸显了创业企业与现有企业在录用上的性别差异，并表明较弱的雇佣保护有助于缩小这一性别差距。本文由创业与创新领域编辑Toby Stuart接受。资助：R. Conti 谨此感谢CY Initiative的资助。补充材料：在线附录和数据文件见 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01491 。
Abstract
Women remain underrepresented not only as startup founders but also as nonfounding employees (“joiners”). Yet there is limited understanding of how to address this disparity. Whereas traditional explanations have emphasized individual employment preferences, we shift the focus to employers’ decision making. We propose that weaker employment protection—which reduces termination costs—increases women’s likelihood relative to men of being hired by startups rather than incumbent firms, as it enhances employers’ flexibility to experiment with traditionally overlooked candidates. We further hypothesize that this effect is less pronounced when information cues counteract stereotypical beliefs about women hires, such as when (a) women have experience as founders, or (b) the focal startup operates in an industry with a higher representation of female employees or female startup employees. Using Portuguese registry data on new hires from 2009 to 2013 and a regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) design, we provide empirical support for these predictions. Our study highlights gender disparities in hiring between startups and incumbent firms and shows that weaker employment protection can help reduce this gender gap. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation. Funding: R. Conti gratefully acknowledges financial support from the CY Initiative. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01491 .