Business founders' work design and new venture development

Abstract

This study aims to explain the interplay between business founders' work design and new venture development. Our qualitative research reveals that founders' work design differs in terms of unsettled and settled work. In unsettled work, founders redesign their work to serve the needed changes in their new ventures. In settled work, founders, who develop a commitment to their self-created work, often maintain rather than change their work, regardless of the potentially needed changes in the new ventures. Our findings suggest that founders' work has a subtle structure that results in direct, day-to-day experience that is integral in shaping new ventures.