Babson Conference at Syracuse University

The Babson College Entrepreneurial Research Conference is in full-swing at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, and the Post Standard wrote an article on the event. Written by Charles McChesney, the article describes the conference and provides insight into some of the research which is all about entrepreneurship. The Conference, hosted by the Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises Department at the Whitman School of Management, brought together 330 academic researchers from 29 countries around the world.

From the article:

Steven A. Edelson, of Walsh University in Ohio, presented on research regarding what attracts would-be employees to start-up companies. Research has shown that the success of startups can depend on getting the right kind of employees so he and his co-writers, J. Michael Haynie and Alexander McKelvie, both of Syracuse University, wanted to find how entrepreneurs could present their companies so they would appeal to potential workers.

Graduating college seniors were surveyed and said they preferred was a company that perceived to treat workers like family. That, they said, beat out innovation, style, market dominance and clearly defined job duties. “More than all the other factors combined,” Edelson said.

That’s good news for entrepreneurs, Edelman explained, because clearly defined job duties and market dominance are traits more typically found in larger, older companies. Since startups can’t compete for workers for those attributes, they can focus on the trait that research shows is most important.

Workers want “good, wholesome make-you-feel-good-at-work companies,” McKelvie said during the discussion after the presentation.