Growth often requires start-ups to recruit new skills not present in the founding team. We analyze if the relationship between integrating new skills and growth depends on timing. Should new skills be recruited as early as possible, or can start-ups add them as needed along the way? Using a unique panel dataset covering Sweden's population of start-ups from 1997 to 2012, our analysis shows that (a) start-ups' growth rate is positively correlated with integrating novel skills early in their life, while adding novel skills later is associated with lower growth and (b) corporate spin-offs profit less from recruiting novel skills than de novo start-ups. We mirror our results against existing theories and develop theoretical perspectives for future research.

中文翻译：

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整合新技能的时机是否会影响初创企业的成长？

增长通常需要初创企业招募创始团队中没有的新技能。我们分析整合新技能与增长之间的关系是否取决于时机。是否应该尽早招募新技能，或者初创企业可以在此过程中根据需要添加它们？使用涵盖 1997 年至 2012 年瑞典初创企业数量的独特面板数据集，我们的分析表明 (a) 初创企业的增长率与在其生命早期整合新技能呈正相关，而后来添加新技能与较低的增长和 (b) 公司分拆从招聘新技能中获得的利润低于从头创业。我们将我们的结果与现有理论进行对比，并为未来的研究发展理论视角。