Motives, use patterns and effects of contingent resource use in entrepreneurial firms

The contingent workforce is an increasingly integral part of the world of work, affecting firms' abilities to accumulate knowledge, create value, and establish competitive advantage. This study examines the motives, use patterns, and outcomes of contingent work in entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial firms in the prepackaged software industry. The findings indicate that contingent work is used in significantly different ways across these two kinds of firms. Flexibility and speed of acquiring skills are particularly important to entrepreneurial firms. The implications of these findings for firms looking for an expedient means of accumulating valuable external knowledge are discussed.