Summary
Questions : How do community-level factors contribute to the prevalence of employee share ownership companies? How do community-level factors affect the survival of employee share ownership firms?
Summary : This research explores the prevalence and survival of broad-based employee share ownership (ESO) firms and characteristics of the communities where they exist. We examine ESO firms in California from 2009 to 2019 to determine whether they gain legitimacy by aligning with the exchange systems in their local environment. We find ESO prevalence and community-level volunteering are positively linked. We also find strong evidence that ESO firms located in communities with high levels of volunteering have better survival rates.