Whistleblowing in entrepreneurial ventures

Daniel R. Clark and Bradley R. Skousen

Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 2023, vol. 19, issue C

Abstract: Despite the occurrence of high-profile whistleblowing events in entrepreneurial firms (e.g., We Work, Uber, and Theranos), there is a dearth of understanding of when and why whistleblowing occurs outside the domain of traditional large firms. Indeed, we argue that new ventures represent a unique and meaningful heterodoxy as entrepreneurs, rebels with a cause, inspire others to join their cause who will ultimately betray the entrepreneur to protect that cause. We test and find support for our hypotheses regarding firm size and new venture status on whistleblowing on a unique dataset of 3113 reported frauds. From these findings we inductively theorize a new model of whistleblower motivation driven by the unique context of entrepreneurs drawing people to join a cause, and the price when fidelity is not maintained.

Keywords: Whistleblowing; Entrepreneurship; Venture size; Purpose; Self-regulation; Employees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:19:y:2023:i:c:s2352673422000671

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2022.e00369

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