How Shared Leadership in Entrepreneurial Teams Influences New Venture Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

While there is a burgeoning trend to recognize leadership as an important enabler of new venture development and growth, scant research has explored the performance mechanisms of shared leadership in the entrepreneurial context. Based on the information processing perspective, we propose a moderated mediation model to examine how shared leadership in entrepreneurial teams advance new venture performance by identifying team reflexivity as a pivotal mediator and team boundary spanning as a crucial contingency. The data set from a cross-industry sample of 94 entrepreneurial teams indicated that shared leadership exerts a positive indirect influence on new venture performance via team reflexivity; and team boundary spanning moderates such indirect influence. Finally, how our findings contribute to the entrepreneurship, leadership, team research, and managerial practice are discussed.