Building on prominent knowledge management scholars (Grant, 1996; Nonaka, 1994; Simon, 1991) asserting that initially all knowledge is tacit and created by people, we assume that critical knowledge underlying start-up inception is tacit and embodied in its founders. Then, progressively, knowledge is disembodied to be crystallized in more tangible and explicit containers such as patents, technologies or products.
This evolution of knowledge tangibility related to start-up maturity makes HR management a strategic issue for acquirers to capture knowledge by retaining founders. Strategic HRM is critical when acquiring young start-ups and justifies sophisticated and specific HR practices to retain the founders (Kristiana et al., 2021).
This research builds on a study of 211 start-ups acquired by Google between 2001 and 2018, exploring the relationship between the presence and retention of start-up founders and the business maturity of the start-ups at the time of acquisition by a large firm.
