Start-Up Firms and Corporate Culture: Evidence from Advertised Corporate Culture

I document the advertised corporate culture among start-up firms from an online job board. Two corporate culture types emerge: one that concerns the well-being of employees (worker-centered culture) and another that emphasizes other values, such as customers, firms, and markets (firm-centered culture). The worker-centered culture attracts 20% more applications than the other culture type. Firms advertising the worker-centered culture pay 5% lower salaries than measurably similar jobs. Outcomes do not significantly differ among firms that promote different types of corporate culture. To assess whether a worker-centered culture is adopted to reduce labor costs or enhance productivity, I develop an equilibrium model. The model implies that many firms adopt a worker-centered culture primarily for cost savings.

This paper was accepted by Ashish Arora, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00254.