Hustlers, hipsters and hackers: Potential employees’ stereotypes of entrepreneurial leaders

Biljana Rudic, Sylvia Hubner and Matthias Baum

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2021, vol. 15, issue C

Abstract: Entrepreneurs’ ability to acquire resources, including human resources, is dependent on others’ beliefs and expectations about what is ‘typical’ in an entrepreneurial context. This paper explores beliefs and expectations of how a typical entrepreneurial leader behaves and looks like, i.e. the ‘entrepreneurial leader stereotype’, from the perspective of potential employees. To analyze and describe those entrepreneurial leader stereotypes, we build on leadership categorization theory and stereotyping literature, and conduct an explorative interview study. Our data suggests that potential employees’ entrepreneurial leader stereotypes are associated with specific leadership behaviors and are cognitively associated with certain groups of individuals. We identify three categories of entrepreneurial leader stereotypes: the ‘hustler’, the ‘hipster’, and the ‘hacker’ – all associated with entrepreneurial leadership, men, and youth. We discuss the implications of our findings for entrepreneurship, recruitment, and leadership research, and for recruiting entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship stereotypes; Leadership stereotypes; Entrepreneurial leadership style; Age; Gender; Startups (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:15:y:2021:i:c:s2352673420300767

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00220

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