Academic literature on the topic 'Entrepreneurial founding team'

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of founding team experience (industry and venturing) in new venture creation. This paper posits the following questions: How does founding team experience influence the likelihood of new venture creation, in the nascent stage? How does industry context moderate this relationship? The study aims to fill an important gap in the literature by unpacking the impact of different types of founding team experiences on venture outcome, and by focusing on the influence of founding team in the venture creation process, specifically at the nascent stage. Design/methodology/approach The paper utilizes data from the Second Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a longitudinal data set of 1,214 nascent entrepreneurs in the USA. Logistics regression was employed to analyze the effect of founding team experience on new venture creation. Post hoc analysis was conducted to ensure the confidence of the findings. Findings The paper provides empirical insights about how founding team experience influences the likelihood of new venture creation in the nascent stage. At the nascent stage, founding team industry experience positively affects new venture creation while founding team venturing experience does not. However, in the high-technology industry environment, the influence of the founding team’s venturing experience on new venture creation is stronger than that in the low-technology industry environment. Research limitations/implications Due to the design of the data set, there is a risk of “right-censoring” problem. Also, because the study used archival data on founding teams, the methodology did not allow for uncovering the underlying team processes and dynamics during the venture creation process based on learning from experience. Future studies are encouraged to examine other types of founding team experience and the underlying process-level factors on venture creation. Practical implications The paper provides important practical implications for nascent entrepreneurs/entrepreneurial teams on team assembling and composition. In general, a team with higher-level industry experience is critical for venturing success. A team with higher-level venturing experience is more desired in the high-technology industry. Originality/value This paper fulfills an important gap in the entrepreneurial team literature by highlighting the complex and nuanced ways in which founding team experience influences the likelihood of venture creation in the nascent stage of the firm, especially after incorporating the additional impact of the industry context.

AbstractEnvironmental entrepreneurship bears great potential to promote sustainable development. Several influencing factors on the level of environmental orientation have been identified by past literature. In this respect, mixed results occur with regard to the influence of gender on environmental entrepreneurship. However, these studies simply investigated the level of a single entrepreneur by distinguishing between male and female individuals, although ventures are increasingly founded by entrepreneurial teams. Consequently, this study quantitatively addresses the research question how the gender of founding teams influences the environmental orientation of entrepreneurial ventures. Based on a dataset of entrepreneurial ventures from the US and Germany, our results indicate that the level of environmental orientation is not dependent on the share of female members, but rather on the gender diversity of the founding team. We conclude that gender diversity within the entrepreneurial team is necessary to address both ecological and economic goals of environmental entrepreneurship. Based on this finding, theoretical and practical implications are drawn, in particular for policy, entrepreneurial teams and entrepreneurship training.

Viewing entrepreneurship as a form of collective action, this paper investigates the tension between an entrepreneurial team’s reliance on collective efforts for achieving success and individual members’ tendencies to withhold their personal resources. We argue that the precarious nature of the early founding stage and the difficulty of redeploying some resources for other uses amplify the risk of early-stage resource contributions and may lead to team members withholding resources or even free riding. Two conditions may help overcome such collective action problems: adopting a formal contract to specify rewards and sanctions and encouraging reciprocal exchange among team members through the lead entrepreneur’s voluntary contributions. Analyzing a nationally representative multiwave panel study of entrepreneurial teams in the United States, we show that early-stage team members are reluctant to provide resources tailored to the business, even though such resources are critical to venture survival. We find that presigned formal contracts and founding entrepreneurs’ initial contributions make members’ contributions of such resources much more likely. Lead entrepreneurs’ voluntary contributions to their businesses, signified by their provision of resources that impose high risks on themselves but increase the viability of the business, help mitigate collective action problems within entrepreneurial teams.

Objective: Conflicts have negative impacts on organizational performance and can lead to company mortality. The GVentures Accelerator, from the School of Business Administration of São Paulo (EAESP-FGV) identified that several startups that failed during and after the acceleration process had conflicts among the founding partners. This work aims to understand why some entrepreneurial teams in a pre-seed stage are able to overcome conflicts while others are not Methodology: We conducted a case study of 9 accelerated startups using in-depth interviews with 20 founding partners, and the interviews were followed by the codification and analysis of the cases with support from the manager responsible for the accelerator.Results: The research concludes that operational conflicts that escalate to affective conflicts due to disagreements in the process of giving and receiving feedback and/or mistrust between partners can lead to the dissolution of a company. On the other hand, founding members, even if they experience affective conflicts, are able to overcome the problems using the strategies of taking a step aside, giving in and putting their egos aside. It was also identified that the acceleration process tends to exacerbate the operational conflicts between founding partners.Theoretical/methodological contributions: The research contributes to the literature about founding teams by pointing out that operational conflict does not necessarily lead to the dissolution of the organization or closing the business, but operational conflicts that intensify to affective conflicts due to disagreements in the process of giving and receiving feedback and/or distrust among partners can lead to the dissolution of the organizationRelevance/originality: Founding teams are the backbone of any company. In spite of several articles discussing team conflict little is known about why some entrepreneurial team are able to overcome conflicts while other not. Moreover, also little is known about the role accelerators play in these conflicts.Social/management contribution: The conclusions about the strategies for managing founding team conflicts: taking a step aside, giving in and putting their egos aside; may be very useful for both entrepreneurs and accelerators’ management team in dealing with conflicts among founders.

This article examines how the prior domestic experience of a founding team influences an entrepreneurial firm’s ability to grow international sales. We argue that such experience leads to domestic mind-sets, which limit a team’s ability to perceive and interpret international stimuli and impact negatively upon international sales growth. Previous studies have overlooked the shared component of such experience. Prior shared experience allows ventures to learn faster from internationalization as a result of team familiarity and transactive memory systems. In uncertain environments, such as geographically distant regions, ventures that have founding teams with prior shared experience are able to outperform those without such experience.

PurposeEntrepreneurship literature has not sufficiently explored the process of how, at different points in time, different members of the co-founding team emerge as leaders. The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the phenomenon of shared leadership emergence process amongst co-founders in entrepreneurial teams.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a qualitative approach. 21 co-founders from 7 entrepreneurial teams participated in the study. In-depth interviews were conducted. The data were analysed using Nvivo 11 software.FindingsThe study elaborates the process model of shared leadership emergence. The study found that shared interpersonal cognition and trust amongst the co-founders lead to claiming and granting of leadership. The findings also illustrate various strategies used by co-founders to emerge as leaders.Practical implicationsThe findings provide key insights to entrepreneurial teams by illuminating what kind of leadership dynamics should be developed, right from the initial stages of the venture. Also, the findings would be beneficial to investors, mentors and coaches of the entrepreneurial teams and ventures, by highlighting team dynamics to be considered before making any investment or team development decisions.Originality/valueThe inductive approach adopted in the study helps in understanding the process of shared leadership emergence in entrepreneurial teams, which is not adequately answered by previous studies. The study extends both shared leadership and entrepreneurship literature by providing a process theory of leadership emergence.

This exploratory study provides a review of the neglected area of entrepreneurial founder team turnover. A novel distinction is made between entrepreneurial founder team member entry and team member exit. Ninety owner–managed ventures were monitored between 1990 and 2000. Presented hypotheses relating to a team's human capital were explored using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Variables associated with entry were found not to be the same as those associated with exit. The size of the founding team was significantly negatively associated with subsequent team member entry. The link between team turnover and entrepreneurial team heterogeneity was mixed. Functional heterogeneity was weakly significantly positively associated with team member entry. Heterogeneity of prior entrepreneurial experience was significantly positively associated with team member exit. In addition, family firms were significantly negatively associated with team member exit. The average age of the team was not significantly associated with team member entry or exit. Additional insights in future research may be gathered if a broader definition of team turnover (i.e., considering team member entry and exit) is considered. Practitioner awareness of the different factors associated with team member entry and exit may encourage them to provide assistance, which facilitates the team building process over time in developing firms. Promising areas for additional research are highlighted.

The aim of this article is to explore the decision-making policies by Polish Venture Capital (VC) firms, with special focus on the perception of entrepreneurs. This paper presents the results of a conjoint analysis and assessment of the importance of select characteristics among entrepreneurs and the qualities of a team of founders comprising managers of VC firms. The data were collected via face-to-face interviews with 26 Venture Capitalists. In the conjoint experiment, six attributes were presented, among which three represented characteristics of the entrepreneur (his/her passion and experience) and the management team (experience and completeness) alongside three characteristics of the opportunity (readiness of the product/service, growth rate of the market, and innovativeness of the whole project). VC managers ranked the importance of eight characteristics of the entrepreneurs related to their decisions and assessed the functional composition of the team of founders. The results of the experiment show that venture capitalists (VCs) most strongly appreciate the readiness of the product and entrepreneur’s passion. However, their preferences varied across the sample. The results of the ranking also show that the VC managers highly value the honesty of the entrepreneur. VCs typically prefer a team of founders, rather than a single-person project, preferably consisting of persons at least familiar with the technology and the market. This study contributes significantly to the state-of-the-art, as research on VC investment policy (investment criteria) is relatively rare in Central and Eastern Europe, where the VC industry is starting to flourish.

Human capital assessment is an integral part of the in-depth evaluation conducted by Venture Capitalists (VCs) before an investment decision. Furthermore, an effective collaboration between external investors and the founding team can be vital for the success of a startup venture. This thesis aims to improve this assessment and collaboration by providing an empirical account of historically successful Swedish tech startups and their founding teams (FT). We employ semi-structured interviews with 13 entrepreneurs who in total have founded over 50 ventures in order to deduce patterns to the characteristics, compositions and views of successful founding management teams. We compile and discuss their views concerning aspects such as organizational culture, team performance and their relationships with external financiers. The focus of this thesis was in part guided by our commissioner, Almi Invest. Based on our interviews and literature review, we present several findings which may be of interest to both investors and entrepreneurs. Some of our key findings are that successful Swedish tech startups are generally composed of diverse teams where the founders share some previous association and complement each other with regards to both competencies and personalities. They view culture and vision as important aspects, with values acting as the uniting factor that drives cohesion and performance. We also find that their views are largely influenced by previous experiences. Finally, we highlight some perceived inefficiencies in the collaboration between investors and entrepreneurs, mainly with regards to post-investment activities and the process of raising capital. Our findings suggest a lack of transparency between entrepreneurs and financiers regarding the investor activity levels, where entrepreneurs generally feel that VCs fall short on their promises. We suggest some areas of improvement where VCs might tune their practices to better suit the needs of their portfolio companies and improve overall performance.

Les entrepreneurs contribuent de manière significative aux activités économiques et à la création d'emplois. S'engager dans des activités entrepreneuriales exige que les entrepreneurs s'exposent à la forte probabilité d'échec, à des risques et à l'incertitude. Par conséquent, il est crucial de comprendre et d'identifier les facteurs qui contribuent à la création d'entreprise, à la poursuite de leurs activités et au développement des activités des entrepreneurs. Cette étude explore 1) un nouveau facteur qui détermine différents niveaux de la tendance à entreprendre à travers les pays et les cultures, et 2) la façon dont les entrepreneurs et les équipes entrepreneuriales choisissent leurs voies de développement et d'évolution.Le chapitre 1 illustre et utilise de manière inédite une caractéristique linguistique du temps futur, la morphologie flexionnelle (c'est à dire conjugaison) pour le temps futur (IF), afin de mesurer la perception de l'incertitude, et d'explorer son effet sur la tendance à entreprendre d'un pays. L'utilisation de la morphologie flexionnelle pour le futur est censée inciter les locuteurs à percevoir intensément l'incertitude. Par conséquent, ces pays et régions connaissent moins de nouvelles entreprises créées. Les preuves empiriques appuient la proposition en utilisant les données au niveau des pays dans 137 pays de 2010 à 2018. Les résultats impliquent que la caractéristique linguistique du futur peut servir comme un facteur institutionnel de la perception de l'incertitude par un individu et contribuer à l'hétérogénéité de la tendance à entreprendre nationale et régionale.Le chapitre 2 examine si la composition de l'équipe fondatrice des entrepreneurs novices aide à prédire s'ils deviennent des entrepreneurs à fort développement. Contrairement aux recherches précédentes, cette étude prend le point de vue de l'entrepreneur en suivant l'activité entrepreneuriale de 1000 entrepreneurs novices au cours de leurs dix premières années. Les résultats montrent que la composition de l'équipe de l'entreprise initiale est importante pour la probabilité que les entrepreneurs connaissent au final un statut de fort développement. Les résultats montrent en outre que les membres non familiaux qui participent en tant que partenaires commerciaux à la toute première entreprise des entrepreneurs les aident à réentreprendre. De plus, les entrepreneurs à fort développement sont plus souvent des entrepreneurs habituels. Lors de l'analyse au niveau de l'entreprise, différents résultats apparaissent, ce qui souligne la nécessité de bien choisir le niveau d'analyse lors de la comparaison des résultats de l'activité entrepreneuriale.Le chapitre 3 évalue l'évolution des équipes fondatrices entrepreneuriales. Les équipes sont des facteurs clés du succès des nouvelles entreprises, mais ils ne sont pas statiques dans le temps. Dans ce chapitre, la chronologie des changements des équipes est mise en évidence et démontrée pour faire des conséquences différentes. Cette enquête a été menée en suivant 1000 équipes britanniques au cours des dix premières années de leurs activités. Selon la chronologie du départ du fondateur et de l'entrée de nouveaux membres, l'éviction du fondateur et le remplacement sont deux types d'évolution nouvellement définis. Les résultats révèlent différents facteurs (propriété au capital, opportunité entrepreneuriale alternative et la disparité de la répartition de la propriété) pour le départ et l'éviction des fondateurs, ainsi que pour l'entrée de nouveaux membres et le remplacement. Des plus, la disparité de la répartition de la propriété après l'évolution de l'équipe est affectée différents évènements affectent différemment l'ampleur de. Ces résultats mettent en lumière l'importance de la chronologie des changements des équipes
Entrepreneurs contribute significantly to economic activities and job creation. Engaging in entrepreneurial activities requires entrepreneurs to face the high likelihood of failure, take risks, and bear a great deal of uncertainty. Hence, understanding and identifying factors that contribute to individuals starting a business, keeping engaging in and growing their entrepreneurial activities are crucial. This study explores 1) a novel factor that determines various levels of entrepreneurial propensity across countries and cultures and 2) how the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams choose their development paths and evolvement.Chapter 1 illustrates and initiatively employs a linguistic feature of future tense, inflectional morphology (i.e., conjugation) for future tense (IF), to measure the perception of uncertainty, and explores its effect on a country's entrepreneurial propensity. Using inflectional morphology for future tense is argued to make speakers perceive uncertainty intensely. Therefore, their resident countries and regions experience fewer new ventures created. The empirical evidence supports the proposition by using the country-level data in 137 countries from 2010 to 2018. The finding implies that the linguistic feature of future tense can serve as the institutional factor of an individual's perception of uncertainty and contribute to the heterogeneity of nationwide and regional entrepreneurial propensity.Chapter 2 investigates whether the founding team composition of novice entrepreneurs help predict whether they become high-growth entrepreneurs. Unlike previous research, this study takes the entrepreneur's perspective by tracking 1000 novice entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial activity in their first ten years. The results show that team composition in the very first company matters for the likelihood that entrepreneurs ultimately experience high-growth status. The findings further indicate that non-family members participating as business partners in the very first company of the entrepreneurs help them become habitual. Moreover, high-growth entrepreneurs are more often habitual entrepreneurs. When running the analysis at the company level, different results appear, which highlights the need for choosing well the level of analysis when comparing the outcomes of entrepreneurial activity.Chapter 3 assesses the evolution of entrepreneurial founding teams (EFTs). EFTs are key drivers of new ventures' success, but they are not static over time. In this chapter, the temporality of EFT evolutionary events is highlighted and evidenced to make different consequences. This investigation was conducted by tracking 1,000 U.K. EFTs for the first ten years of their ventures. Based on the temporal sequence of founder departure and new member entry, founder crowd-out and replacement are two newly defined types of evolution. The results reveal different antecedents (equity ownership, alternative entrepreneurial opportunity and the disparity of ownership distribution) for founder departure and crowd-out, as well as for new member entry and replacement. Furthermore, the disparity of ownership after evolution is affected differently by evolutionary events in terms of magnitude. These findings shed light on the importance of the temporality of EFT evolutionary events

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
This thesis examines entrepreneurial ventures launched by graduating MIT students with the goal of understanding entrepreneurship activities of students while in full-time graduate degree programs and drawing insights on founding teams, business models, execution challenges and impact. These insights are key around the world as universities decide their approach to entrepreneurship education, and also relevant to academics, prospective founders, and early stage investors. I developed qualitative and quantitative insights on survival rates of founders from MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2010 graduates based on their demographics, experiences, businesses, resources and challenges. Students with prior experience in entrepreneurship or at a small company, who choose to intern at a small company, or who build diverse teams, are correlated with higher survival rates. Further, I present a methodology for a longitudinal study on studying venture creation by graduating students considering entrepreneurship. In conclusion, I provide early recommendations. Universities could facilitate early crosscampus collaboration, provide tactical support, and adapt their strategy for encouraging entrepreneurship by industry. Academics can leverage data in this thesis to both provide examples of founders among recent alumni, and offer advice on team building. Prospective student entrepreneurs could consider data in this thesis while identifying co-founders, develop early relationships across campus, and start early on ventures.
by Nitin Bantwal Rao.
M.B.A.

AbstractThe creation of new ventures and growing them into well-established organizations is the key purpose of managing new ventures. This chapter explains the 10 most essential subtopics for managing new ventures (Shepherd et al. in Journal of Management 47:11–42, 2021): (1) lead founder, (2) founding team, (3) social relationships, (4) cognitions, (5) emergent organizing, (6) new venture strategy, (7) organizational emergence, (8) new venture legitimacy, (9) founder exit, and (10) entrepreneurial environment. This chapter ties these “managing” subtopics into the three major stages of the entrepreneurial process—co-creating, organizing, and performing. The framework provides a cohesive story of managing new ventures.

The essential transition step from a startup to a sustainable organization in early-stage entrepreneurs is very crucial. The four stages in the life cycle of an entrepreneurial venture consists of ideation, transition, scaling-up, and growth/exit and is efficiently done by knowledge-based services (KBS). The founding team faced the key challenges which emphasize assessment, validation, and enhancement of the business concept. KBS is a large and fast-growing economy based on businesses and professions which lays a concrete foundation to build a scalable business. KBS are highly recommended opportunities for new venture investment and growth and have created more than 79% out of all nonfarm US jobs. This area has been paid very little attention to entrepreneurship research and education which hampers national economic expansion. This article discusses entrepreneurship education, research and investment in KBS. KBS research work explores exclusive features, opportunities, and challenges in new venture development to a scalable enterprise.