Why Do Sustainable Ventures Fail to Attract Management Talent?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Sustainable Entrepreneurship
2.2. Challenges of Scaling Sustainable Ventures
2.3. Research Motivation
3. Research Methods
3.1. Sample Selection
3.2. Data Collection and Analysis
4. Results
4.1. Competitive Disadvantages of Sustainable Ventures
4.1.1. Visibility
4.1.2. Uncertain Career Path
4.1.3. Lack of Guidance and Structure
4.1.4. HR Prioritization
4.1.5. Over-Reliance on Personal Networks
4.2. Competitive Advantages of Sustainable Ventures
4.2.1. Autonomy
4.2.2. Personal Growth
4.2.3. Working Culture
5. Discussion
5.1. Theoretical Contributions
5.2. Practical Contributions
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Sample Group | Venture Name | Interviewee Name | Individual/Venture Description | Individual/Venture Characteristics |
---|---|---|---|---|
Human resource managers (HR) | SocialMoney | STKE-HR-1 FEFO-HR-2 KAJA-HR-3 | Offers flexible pension accrual in a 100% sustainable life cycle fund. Reform the Dutch pension system into a fairer, flexible and sustainable system. | Legal form (N.V.-company is owned by shareholders but they are not directly known); founded (2013); SBI-code (64301—investment services); Employees (6); Net Worth (135,000 euro) |
CleanBuildings | NOJO-HR-4 DAHW-HR-5 | Makes buildings energy neutral through clean, efficient energy production using patented window glass. | Legal form (B.V.–private limited liability company); founded (2014); SBI-code (72192—engineering, technological development); Employees (25); Net Worth (440,000 euro) | |
IntegrationNL | DIWI-HR-6 | Strives for the economic empowerment of newcomers and their integration into local communities. | Legal form (Not-for-profit foundation); founded (2017); SBI-code (94993—support fund); Employees (5); Net Worth (n/a) | |
Recent hires (RH) | SocialMoney | MESC-RH-1 JEGL-RH-2 CAMA-RH-3 | ||
CleanBuildings | YUZH-RH-4 FIDA-RH-5 | |||
IntegrationNL | LASA-RH-6 | |||
Recent graduate (RG) | LUVE-RG-1 | MSc, Business Administration: International Management | Dutch, 23, male | |
MIOM-RG-2 | MSc, Business Administration: Digital Business Innovation | Dutch, 24, male | ||
ROSC-RG-3 | MSc, Business Administration: Strategy | Dutch, 24, male | ||
MAGO-RG-4 | MSc, Business Administration: Digital Business | German, 24 male | ||
BOHE-RG-5 | MSc, Business Administration: Digital Business | Dutch, 24 male | ||
REKU-RG-6 | MSc, Business Administration: Strategy | Latvian, 24 male | ||
LOLA-RG-7 | MSc, Business Administration: Digital Business | Dutch, 25, female |
Disadvantages | Explanation | Examples |
---|---|---|
Visibility | Little awareness or low expectations of sustainable ventures | “If you start looking on the internet or LinkedIn or I don’t know, it is just much easier to find the big companies, because it is difficult to find the smaller companies”. (CAMA-RH-3) “It’s rather challenging to find those companies because they are really small and they usually do not really post any vacancies quite ahead of time” (MAGO-RG-4). |
Uncertain career path | Negative perception of opportunity for promotions, and increased unpredictability of what their future would look like | “If we’re not growing fast enough, you will be stuck in the same job, for a long time. So that is definitely a drawback” (KAJA-HR-3). “In a big corporate you have a job and you know what you are gonna do. Stability, here you have less stability” (STKE-HR-1). |
Lack of guidance and structure | The absence of a personal learning or coaching program, including one-on-one mentoring, or structural support | “Responsibilities are not very much clear, so people might not feel that they are not really having impact yet” (FEFO-HR-2). “In a way it is sink or swim, so you do have to be able to manage your own time, come up with your own ideas. There is not a big support system to lean back on” (KAJA-HR-3). |
HR prioritization | The lack of strategic decision-making, planning or vision related to recruitment | “We don’t have time and a budget to hire a HR manager. We don’t have the time and money to have one person, even one day a week, do fully HR. So the recruitment is something that needs to be done on the side” (STKE-HR-1) “You need to have a very broad outreach, and then a very strong selection … but we are not doing that” (FEFO-HR-2). |
Over-reliance on personal networks | HR managers’ use of their personal network in the recruitment process | “…other colleagues, so people that are telling friends, or family or whatever, that we are looking for people, so that is how most people get to work here” (STKE-HR-1) “It feels a lot like the majority of people apply, because they already know someone who is working for us” (KAJA-HR-3) |
Advantages | Explanation | Examples |
---|---|---|
Autonomy | Independence and responsibility in the role, the absence of strict supervision, freedom to pursue own initiatives, and self-management | “You can make your own decisions, you have your own responsibility”. (NOJO-HR-4) “I mean I am in charge, I call people every day and organize stuff and I am really my own boss”. (LASA-RH-6) |
Personal growth | Opportunities for self-development, high learning curves, and fast rates of increased responsibility | “Self-development, taking your own responsibilities and the possibility to grow. Those are the incentives why people would want to work here”. (NOJO-HR-4) “…the higher learning curve, I would say… I think that you will also get more responsibilities. And you’ve got the possibility to learn more, or learn quicker”. (MIOM-RG-2) |
Working culture | Non-hierarchical, dynamic atmosphere and the feeling of contributing to a greater good | “For me that’s very important, that I can identify myself with the values of the company and the ways of working”. (ROSC-RG-3) “I would prefer working at a rather smaller company, because I prefer to not have that much of a hierarchical structure and to be closer to your supervisor and to your boss” (MAGO-RG-4) “You can really have a direct impact and you can see the impact on the people. You can contribute to a project and then see the result and that they’re happy” (REKU-RG-6) |
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Thompson, N.A.; Eijkemans, R. Why Do Sustainable Ventures Fail to Attract Management Talent? Sustainability 2018, 10, 4319. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114319
Thompson NA, Eijkemans R. Why Do Sustainable Ventures Fail to Attract Management Talent? Sustainability. 2018; 10(11):4319. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114319
Chicago/Turabian StyleThompson, Neil Aaron, and Roosje Eijkemans. 2018. "Why Do Sustainable Ventures Fail to Attract Management Talent?" Sustainability 10, no. 11: 4319. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114319