J. Daniel Kim of The Wharton School was a recipient of the 2025 Research in Strategic Management Grant program. Learn more about their work:
What is your research question/topic?
This research examines the role of venture capital investors’ portfolios as networks that facilitate the redeployment of human capital among startups. Beyond financial support, we investigate how investors help portfolio companies scale by providing access to a shared pool of experienced talent. Specifically, our primary research question asks how hiring from within a venture capitalist’s network influences a startup’s performance and growth. We further explore how frequently this portfolio-based hiring occurs and under what conditions, such as specific industries or organizational capabilities, these talent flows are most prevalent.
What are you hoping to accomplish through your research?
Our research examines how venture capital firms facilitate the movement of talent across their portfolio companies as a form of non-financial support. By analyzing large-scale employment data and leveraging quasi-exogenous law changes for investors, we plan to identify the relationship between these investor-linked talent flows and subsequent startup performance. Through this work, we hope to offer new insights into how startups leverage investor networks to overcome resource constraints and scale more effectively.
What impact could this research have more broadly on the field of strategic management?
This research can contribute to strategic management by highlighting human capital redeployment as a specific mechanism through which venture capital investors shape the growth of young firms. By tracing mobility across portfolio companies, the project revisits the concept of firm boundaries, highlighting how resource allocation can occur at the level of investor-orchestrated networks rather than the firm itself. Additionally, it can demonstrate how integrating fine-grained employment histories with a natural experiment can offer a clearer understanding of the drivers of venture scaling.
What SMS resources (members, workshops, events, etc.) were helpful to you during the application process?
I’ve long benefited from conversations with fellow members from the Entrepreneurship & Strategy and Strategic Human Capital Interest Groups, through which was able to refine this research project proposal.
Who inspires you the most to do this work? (whether that is professionally or personally).
I have been inspired by the venture capital investors I interviewed to gain a closer understanding of the phenomenon. As I repeatedly heard from these practitioners that investors are taking a more active role in shaping the talent dynamics within their portfolios, I became convinced that there are meaningful, underexplored questions at the intersection of entrepreneurial finance and startup labor markets.