Javascript inheritance: calling Object.create when setting a prototype

Question

I\'m learning some aspects of Object-oriented Javascript. I came across this snippet

var Person = function(firstName, lastName)
{
  this.lastName = lastName         


        

Answer 1

My guess is that the intent is to create a new object rather than just a reference from Person.

//create a new object with its prototype assigned to Person.prototype
Employee.prototype = Object.create(Person.prototype);