Entrepreneurial Team Conflict – The Associations With ADHD, Gender, Well-Being And Firm Performance

Abstract

This study examines how entrepreneurial team conflict is influenced by Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms and gender factor as well as how team conflict impacts entrepreneurial well-being and firm performance. Surveying 1,053 entrepreneurs in the U.S and Australia, we found that ADHD symptoms are negatively associated with both cognitive team conflict and emotional team conflict. Moreover, although women entrepreneurs experience less both cognitive team conflict and emotional team conflict than men entrepreneurs, gender factor has no moderating effect on the relationship between ADHD and the two types of team conflict. In terms of the outcomes of team conflict, emotional conflict is negatively related to entrepreneurial well-being while cognitive conflict has no significant relationship with well-being. In addition, our findings suggested that both cognitive conflict and emotional conflict are negatively associated with firm performance. Overall, our study advances literature on entrepreneurial team (new venture team) as well as contributes to growing entrepreneurship research on ADHD, gender and well-being.