The Interactive Effect of Psychological Capital and Gender on Employee Turnover and Promotion Within Entrepreneurial Ventures

Entrepreneurship is of crucial importance in facilitating economic recovery and growth. While research largely focuses on the role of the individual entrepreneur, venture success also depends on the ability for the entrepreneur to attract and retain top employees.  This dissertation investigates some of the state-like psychological resources that can predict entrepreneurial employee outcomes. We examine how employee performance (specifically turnover and promotions) within an entrepreneurial venture is influenced by the employee’s written language expresses one's PsychologicalCapital (PsyCap), and how this relationship is moderated by employee gender.  This study consists of 174 hired employees from a young digital new venture.  All behavioral and demographic data was provided to further the research and understanding of how employee PsyCap measurement can help optimize hiring and retention.  Overall, the study's findings offer promise in advancing PsyCap utilization in selection activities, while better understanding if the interaction of gender changes performance. This study makes three unique contributions to the literature.  First, this dissertation adds to the minimal stream of research that currently exists at the intersection of human resources and entrepreneurship.  Second, this study expands current PsyCap literature by leveraging its usability to understanding entrepreneurial employees.  The third contribution comes in expanding the potential use of content text analysis during the hiring process for new ventures.  Implications from this study, as well as recommendations for future studies, are also discussed.