The influence of entrepreneurial leadership on applicant attraction in new ventures

We observe if anticipated entrepreneurial leadership style influences a new ventures attractiveness as an employer and whether this effect is contingent on entrepreneurs’ age and gender. Based on signaling and role congruity theory we assume that a) entrepreneurial leadership style enhances organizational attractiveness b) this effect is mediated by perceived authenticity and c) this mediated process is moderated by entrepreneur’s age and gender. A between-subject experimental design (n=503) reveals that the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on organizational attractiveness via perceived authenticity is stronger if the entrepreneur is younger (but is not qualified by entrepreneurs’ gender). This study contributes to entrepreneurship, leadership and recruitment literature by showing how entrepreneurs’ leadership style, shaped by entrepreneurs’ age and gender, influences organizational attractiveness of new ventures. We show how entrepreneurs can attract applicants which helps them growing their firm.