Research

Published and Forthcoming Articles

2025

1. How Digital Platforms Affect Local Entrepreneurial Activities: Evidence from the Staggered Entry of Craigslist

   Daehyun Kim, Yongwook Paik, and Namil Kim*

   Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2025

   Abstract Journal

   Access to markets is critical for entrepreneurial success, yet many face significant barriers. This study argues that digital platforms functioning as peer-to-peer marketplaces can facilitate entrepreneurial activity by improving market access for new ventures. Using the staggered entry of Craigslist into various markets, we find that Craigslist’s entry increased local entrepreneurial activities, especially in low-income regions. Moreover, individuals from lower-income households, as well as Black and immigrant communities, were more likely to create new ventures following Craigslist’s entry. Firms founded after Craigslist’s entry were also smaller in size, potentially reflecting more efficient management, and primarily operated in B2C rather than B2B sectors. This study highlights how multisided platforms can empower individuals with limited market accessand resources, ultimately democratizing entrepreneurship in the digital age.

2024

1. Are Researchers More Likely to Succeed When They Start a Technology-Based Startup?

   Jeoungbong Han, Daehyun Kim*, Wonjoon Kim, and Cho Sunghyun

   Applied Economics Letters, 2024

   Abstract Journal

   This study investigates the relationship between a founder’s occupational background and the survival rate of technology-based startups, focusing on founders with prior research positions. Utilizing a unique tech-based startup database, the study discovers that startups founded by researchers exhibit a lower survival rate compared to those led by founders with other backgrounds. Nevertheless, prior entrepreneurial experience positively moderates the relationship between a founder’s research experience and startup survival rate, indicating that practical business knowledge can offset the inherent lack of business expertise in a researcher’s background. Moreover, the study reveals that startups established by researchers from large companies have an even lower survival rate, as specialization within large organizations may impede the acquisition of essential management skills. These findings emphasize the importance of developing a diverse skill set for startup success.

Manuscripts Under Review

current

1. Anti-Labor Environments and Employee Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Right-To-Work Laws

   Daehyun Kim, Namil Kim*, and Haemin Dennis Park

   2^nd Revise and Resubmit, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

   Abstract

   We explore how changes in labor union and related labor environments affect employees’ likelihood of starting a new business. Using Michigan’s and Indiana’s adoption of right-to-work (RTW) laws as a natural experiment, we demonstrate that the likelihood of employees becoming self-employed increased by 54.6% as compared to that in states without RTW laws following the passage of the law. However, this tendency is more pronounced for less-educated and blue-collar workers. Moreover, newly created-firms are mostly small businesses with limited scalability. These findings offer novel insights on the relationship between anti-labor environments and employee entrepreneurship.

2. Unpacking the Entrepreneurial Process after Failure: The Role of Attribution and Behavioral Responses in Technology-Based Startups

   Daehyun Kim, Haejun Jung, Aaron Chatterji, Wonjoon Kim*, and Sunghyun Cho

   1^st Revise and Resubmit, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

   Abstract

   This paper investigates the relationship between the attribution of the cause of prior entrepreneurial failure and subsequent entrepreneurial processes, with a focus on technology-based startups. Drawing on social psychology literature on attribution theory and research on learning from failure, the study finds that failed entrepreneurs with prior financing experience are more likely to attribute internal factors as the causes of their business failure, reducing their likelihood of re-entering entrepreneurial activities after a failure. Furthermore, the study shows that serial entrepreneurs who attribute their previous failure to internal factors are more likely to change their business model or technology in subsequent startups. Lastly, the research reveals that entrepreneurs who change their business model or technology after a previous startup failure have a higher probability of receiving private investment than startups founded by entrepreneurs who do not make these changes. Overall, the research provides a comprehensive understanding of the behavioral processes of failed entrepreneurs and contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship.

3. Employee-Friendly but Costly Workplace Practices? Evidence from Paid Family Leave Policies and Venture Capital Investments

   Daehyun Kim, Yongwook Paik*, and Shu Deng

   Under Review

   Abstract SSRN

   This study investigates the effect of paid family leave (PFL) policies—an institutional intervention—on venture capital (VC) investment in VC-backed startups. Leveraging the staggered implementation of PFL across U.S. states, we find that their introduction is associated with a decline in VC investment, particularly among startups with a higher proportion of female employees. This effect appears to be driven by increased employee departures and reduced innovation, suggesting that PFL-related workforce disruptions may impose organizational burdens, weaken startup performance, and ultimately deter investor interest. Our findings contribute to strategy and entrepreneurship research by demonstrating how institutional shocks can destabilize human capital—a critical yet fragile resource in early-stage firms—and by showing the boundary conditions of human capital advantages under institutional constraints.

4. How Does Publicly Available Knowledge Affect Interfirm Hiring?

   Shu Deng, Haemin Dennis Park*, and Daehyun Kim

   Under Review

   Abstract SSRN

   Increased availability of public knowledge may diminish the necessity of hiring inventors for codified knowledge, but it may heighten the demand for inventors with tacit knowledge to utilize public knowledge. By using the enactment of the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA) as a shock that increased publicly available knowledge through mandated patent disclosure, we find that firms with greater exposure to AIPA hire fewer inventors who possess less complex knowledge while hiring more inventors who possess highly complex knowledge. Further analyses reveal that both the substitution and complementation effects are less pronounced for firms with highly novel technological portfolios, whereas they are more pronounced for firms with greater technological capability.

5. When Automation Hits Jobs: Entrepreneurship as an Alternative Career Path

   Daehyun Kim, Taekyun Kim*, Wonjoon Kim, and Hyejin Youn

   Under Review

   Abstract

   The paper explores the association between workers in occupations at risk of automation and their inclination towards entrepreneurship, particularly in its unincorporated form, as a reaction to changes in the labor market driven by robotics and AI. Through analysis of data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Automation Probability Index (API), it uncovers a significant link between heightened automation risks and the propensity to start smaller, less innovative entrepreneurial endeavors. The study further sheds light on gender differences in these trends, noting a lesser propensity for female workers to turn to entrepreneurship when faced with the prospect of automation. Moreover, the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in intensifying this movement towards entrepreneurship is recognized, coinciding with a surge in automation technology adoption during this period. This research enhances understanding of the impact of automation on career choices, underlining the need for policy initiatives to assist individuals transitioning from conventional employment to entrepreneurship in an economy increasingly influenced by automation.

Manuscripts Under Development

Correct authoring will be determined later

current

1. The Emergence of P2P Platform and Entrepreneurial Experimentation: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Craigslist

   Daehyun Kim

   Abstract

   This paper investigates how the expansion of Craigslist into U.S. metropolitan areas has affected the propensity of potential entrepreneurs to test their business ideas. By providing cost‐free access to local markets and facilitating side-job activities among employees, Craigslist has created a low‐risk environment for entrepreneurial experimentation. Our empirical analysis, based on a staggered difference‐in‐differences approach, finds that Craigslist’s entry significantly increased entrepreneurial experimentation, particularly among employees engaging in side-jobs. Moreover, the effect is especially pronounced among younger and highly educated individuals, while little evidence is found for significant heterogeneity by gender or income. These findings underscore the role of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces in providing a ground that allows entrepreneurs to test their business ideas more easily and quickly, lowering barriers to entry and fostering entrepreneurship in the digital era.

2. Technological Uniqueness and Venture Capital Investment

   Daehyun Kim, Haemin Dennis Park*, and Shu Deng

   Abstract

   This study investigates how the technological uniqueness of startups influences their likelihood of receiving first-round venture capital (VC) funding and how this relationship depends on the degree of similarity between startups and investors. While prior research suggests that startups could benefit from being optimally distinctive, little is known about how investor characteristics moderate this relationship. We address this gap by theorizing that startup–investor alignment, in terms of technological and industry similarity, alters how investors evaluate technological uniqueness. Using a novel text-based measure of technological uniqueness, our results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between a startup’s technological uniqueness and the likelihood of receiving first-round VC funding. However, this pattern varies depending on startup–investor alignment. Specifically, when a VC has greater technological or industry similarity with the startup, the inverted U-shape flattens, and the likelihood of funding increases even for highly distinctive startups. These findings suggest that investor familiarity attenuates the uncertainty associated with uniqueness and shifts the optimal level of distinctiveness. Overall, our study contributes to research on optimal distinctiveness and entrepreneurial resource acquisition by highlighting how investor-side characteristics shape evaluations of novel ventures.

3. Startup Accelerators and International Market Entry: Evidence from the German Accelerator Program

   David Heller, Daehyun Kim, and Dietmar Harhoff

   Abstract

   While internationalization efforts can substantially benefit startups to overcome financial and human capital input constraints, entering foreign markets remains a significant challenge. Accelerator programs are important in supporting startups scaling and growth ambitions by providing in-depth entrepreneurial learning opportunities. However, research on the effects of accelerators on startups’ internationalization efforts remains scarce. This study provides novel evidence on the performance implications and workings of startup accelerators designed to support international market entry. To this end, we theorize on the potential learning mechanisms of accelerators and test our predictions by leveraging a unique empirical setting in which we study the German Accelerator (GA), a government-funded accelerator for startups that plan international market entries. Our data combines proprietary application data from the GA, detailed startup-level, founder, and investment information from Crunchbase and Revelio. The analysis reveals that startups raised significantly more funding from investors located in the GA target countries after participating in the program compared to the comparison group startups. Consistent with the learning mechanism, we also find that the main effects are muted for startups that participated in online programs offered by the GA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the results are most pronounced for startups whose founders have ex-ante limited international experience. We confirm these findings with qualitative data from surveying GA alumni. Our study advances the understanding of the workings and limitations of startup accelerators designed to support internationalization efforts, a key strategy for many entrepreneurial ventures seeking for global scalability.

4. Generative AI and New Firm Creation: Evidence From Current Population Survey

   Daehyun Kim

   Abstract

   This paper investigates the impact of generative artificial intelligence on workers’ decisions to found businesses in the United States. Although there has been considerable speculation that generative AI can lower barriers to innovation, encourage self-employment, and stimulate new venture formation, systematic empirical evidence on this question remains limited. To address this gap, we merge occupation-level exposure measures to generative AI (as developed by Felten et al., 2023) with individual-level data from the Current Population Survey. We then implement a continuous difference-in-differences design to compare changes in self-employment outcomes among workers who are differentially exposed to generative AI technologies before and after ChatGPT’s public release. Our results indicate that individuals employed in occupations more exposed to generative AI exhibit a reduction in transitions to incorporated self-employment in the period following ChatGPT’s release, in contrast to workers in occupations with lower exposure. The effect on unincorporated self-employment is statistically indistinguishable from zero, and we find no significant change in unemployment rates. While generative AI holds promise for facilitating the search for new ideas and boosting productivity, these findings suggest that technology-induced entrepreneurship may not manifest uniformly in the short run, possibly due to uncertainty, reallocation frictions, or the possibility that workers choose to leverage these tools in existing paid employment roles rather than in newly formed businesses.

5. Director Job Security and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Majority Voting Legislation

   Daehyun Kim

   Abstract

   We examine whether weakening directors’ job security, induced by the staggered adoption of majority voting (MV) legislation in U.S. states, drives entrepreneurship among employees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that STEM employees are about 42% more likely to form incorporated self-employment following MV enactment. By contrast, there is no significant change in unincorporated self-employment or unemployment. The evidence suggests that when directors face a heightened threat of dismissal and shorten the innovation horizon, STEM workers—who value complex, long-term projects—tend to exit to pursue their own businesses. The findings offer new insights into the interplay between corporate governance and the career choices of key technical personnel.