We focus on former entrepreneurs’ employment in established firms. Understanding the retention of former entrepreneurs—those who were previously founders of business ventures—is important to firms hoping to reap the benefits of their entrepreneurial experience. We compare the duration of their retention to other employees without entrepreneurial experience and propose a theoretical model in which entrepreneurial identity and job characteristics play a central role. The time-dependent risk of voluntary turnover was estimated using survival analysis. Results from a primary survey collected from multiple firms in 2015–2018 (Study 1) reveal that former entrepreneurs quit sooner than others, and this effect was mediated by entrepreneurial identity. A second study using the NLSY79 and O*Net longitudinal dataset (Study 2) again supports this mediated relationship and further shows that the indirect effect through entrepreneurial identity was moderated such that employees with entrepreneurial identity stayed longer in jobs with favorable characteristics (i.e., high levels of work autonomy and more entrepreneurial opportunities) than other jobs. In Study 2, we were able to observe individuals’ careers over decades to capture the patterns of individual mobility—the back-and-forth exploration between businesses owned by self and others. The supplementary analysis provides additional evidence regarding turnover destinations. The findings offer implications for firms endeavoring to retain entrepreneurial talent and individuals pursuing a career that may involve both paid employment and entrepreneurship.

中文翻译：

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曾经是企业家，永远是企业家？前企业家在有偿就业中的企业家身份、工作特征和自愿离职

我们专注于前企业家在成熟公司的就业。了解前企业家的保留——那些以前是商业企业的创始人——对于希望从他们的创业经验中获益的公司来说很重要。我们将他们的留任时间与其他没有创业经验的员工进行了比较，并提出了一个理论模型，其中企业家身份和工作特征起着核心作用。使用生存分析估计自愿离职的时间相关风险。2015-2018 年从多家公司收集的初步调查结果（研究 1）显示，前企业家比其他人更早退出，这种影响是由企业家身份介导的。使用 NLSY79 和 O*Net 纵向数据集的第二项研究（研究 2）再次支持这种中介关系，并进一步表明，通过企业家身份的间接影响得到缓和，因此具有企业家身份的员工在具有有利特征的工作中停留的时间更长（即，高工作自主性水平和更多的创业机会）比其他工作。在研究 2 中，我们能够观察几十年来个人的职业生涯，以捕捉个人流动的模式——个人拥有的企业与他人拥有的企业之间的来回探索。补充分析提供了关于营业额目的地的额外证据。