Make it work - The challenge to diversity in entrepreneurial teams: A configurational perspective

Abstract

Teams and timing are considered decisive for firm survival. We investigate the impact on firm survival of entrepreneurial team composition, in terms of diversity, and the speed of entering markets. Unlike research analysing the effects of low or high diversity, our research understands new venture teams as configurations of multiple, concurrent dimensions of diversity by untangling it in variety, separation, and disparity. By identifying distinct survival and failure configurations, we demonstrate that team variety is functional for firm survival if challenged by separation or disparity.