Human Resource Strategies for the High Growth Entrepreneurial Firm

This volume not only illustrates the research that is being done in the area of human resources in entrepreneurial firms but it raisesmany issues that exemplify the complexity of the topic. It is not a case of small versus large firms. There are small established firms, smallstart-up firms and small high growth firms. As pointed out by Alvarez and Molloy these firms differ with established firms dealing with riskwhile high growth firms deal with uncertainty. These firms vary in ownership based on family ownership, ownership by founder, or sometype of privately held stock ownership. These firms also vary based on how they handle people issues: structure versus lack of structure; thetraditional HR functional approach versus the use of people management practices; person-job fit versus person- organization fit; ability andwork experience versus integrity and conscientiousness; work processes and bureaucracy versus agility and adaptability; tasks versus roles;in-house professionals versus reliance on third-party vendors; traditional pay versus variable pay; short-term orientation of incentives versuslong-term orientation of incentives; and many more.We challenge you to pursue this stream of research and to help not only develop theory and conceptual models and pursue empiricalresearch but to also disseminate your information in a way that will help practitioners and owners in all the small and high growth firms.