Entrepreneurial Teams Research Articles

Power to the she: how gender homogeneity among nascent entrepreneurial teams influences innovation

Innovative entrepreneurship among female entrepreneurs is vital for sustainable economic growth and societal evolution, yet most of the research on innovation in entrepreneurship focuses on high-tech industries which are primarily dominated by heterogenous male-led top management teams. The primary purpose of this paper is to augment the existing literature by exploring how gender differences in the structure of new venture teams influences venture-level innovation through research and development. Our results submit that all-female top management teams and teams with females in general management positions are less likely to be focused on innovative activities, but that teams with females in technical or research positions within the top management team structure are more likely to be focused on innovative activities. Additionally, we investigate the relationships between top management team members to show that all-female teams focused on innovation tend to have more diverse ownership and closer relationships across team members. We apply the lens of upper echelons theory to conjecture that how female entrepreneurs structure their new ventures teams at the onset of venture creation has far-reaching and long-term impacts on innovation throughout the lifecycle of the venture.

Displaying and negotiating entrepreneuring expertise in context: A practice theory perspective

In this paper, we use practice theory to expand what is known about entrepreneurial expertise. The study presents evidence suggesting that expertise is accomplished by entrepreneurial team members for and by themselves in ordinary workplace interactions. We discuss four types of expertise that reveal how entrepreneuring practitioners establish and assess knowledge positions given uncertainty constraints, integrate external abstract knowledge into their situation, and reject or replace their lived experiences with abstract knowledge. The study advances theory on entrepreneurial expertise and contributes to the literature of the entrepreneurship-as-practice.

The congruence of mental models in entrepreneurial teams – implications for performance and satisfaction in teams operating in an emerging economy

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the relationship between the congruence of mental models held by the members of entrepreneurial teams operating in an emerging economy (Poland) and entrepreneurial outcomes (performance and satisfaction).Design/methodology/approachThe data obtained from 18 nascent and 20 established entrepreneurial teams was analysed to answer hypotheses. The research was quantitative and was conducted using an online questionnaire. Data was collected from each of the teams at two stages. Members of entrepreneurial teams were surveyed independently, which allowed measuring the congruence of their mental models pertaining to running a venture.FindingsFindings reveal that team members’ mental model congruence is significantly related to financial performance and members’ satisfaction in the case of established entrepreneurial teams. However, in the case of nascent teams, there is no relationship between analysed variables.Practical implicationsImplications for theory and practice are offered with a special emphasis on entrepreneurship education. The concept of team mental model congruence is proposed to be included in training of nascent entrepreneurial teams, experienced companies and students.Originality/valueThe concept of team mental models investigated by the authors has been underexplored in entrepreneurship research. Results indicate that at least in some entrepreneurial teams, team mental models’ congruence is related to obtained outcomes. The paper proposes that principles of effectuation and causation can serve as the lens through which the mental model pertaining to running a venture can be analysed. It allows expanding studies on the congruence of team mental models in entrepreneurial teams beyond the strategic consensus.

The Research Based on the Concept of "CGCM" Employment Entrepreneurship about Reconstruction of Training System of Logistics Management Major

Professional training system of Employment entrepreneurship concept is a key link in the process of teaching, and the effect is directly related to the quality of the logistics personnel training. Combining with reconstruction of professional training system of "employment entrepreneurship" concept launched in School of International Business, AnhuiInternational Studies University, the paper probe into new ideas and new practices of reconstruction of training system of logistics management major from the following four aspects: Cultivate Employment and Entrepreneurship Ability, Guide Employment and Entrepreneurship Awareness, Create Employment and Entrepreneurship Environment, Mold Employment and Entrepreneurship Team.

Adenosine synthase A contributes to recurrent Staphylococcus aureus infection by dampening protective immunity.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is a common human pathogen capable of causing diverse illnesses with possible recurrent infections. Although recent studies have highlighted the role of cellular immunity in recurrent infections, the mechanism by which S. aureus evades host responses remains largely unexplored.Methods: This study utilizes in vitro and in vivo infection experiments to investigate difference of pro-inflammatory responses and subsequent adaptive immune responses between adsA mutant and WT S. aureus strain infection.Findings: We demonstrated that adenosine synthase A (AdsA), a potent S. aureus virulence factor, can alter Th17 responses by interfering with NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1β production. Specifically, S. aureus virulence factor AdsA dampens Th1/Th17 immunity by limiting the release of IL-1β and other Th polarizing cytokines. In particular, AdsA obstructs the release of IL-1β via the adenosine/A2aR/NLRP3 axis. Using a murine infection model, pharmacological inhibition of A2a receptor enhanced S. aureus-specific Th17 responses, whereas inhibition of NLRP3 and caspase-1 downregulated these responses. Our results showed that AdsA contributes to recurrent S. aureus infection by restraining protective Th1/Th17 responses.Interpretation: Our study provides important mechanistic insights for therapeutic and vaccination strategies against S. aureus infections.

The emergence of entrepreneurial team as a research field – way forward

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review and critique the existing literature on entrepreneurial teams (ET) by taking a multi-disciplinary viewpoint and provide a future research agenda based on the identified themes and trends.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review (SLR) was undertaken using “business source complete”. Further scrutiny and application of exclusion criteria led to a final sample consisting of 139 papers from 27 different journals belonging to not just entrepreneurship and strategic management but also other disciplines like OB, finance, sociology, psychology, etc. Using qualitative thematic analysis, the authors identified 11 major themes.FindingsThe paper reviews both the eleven themes and the linkages between the themes. Thereby identifying areas that have been understudied and those that have received comparatively more attention. The review revealed that the research stream possesses certain conceptual and methodological concerns apart from its cross-sectional and primarily bivariate nature. Five such main concerns have been identified and discussed in detail. Other elements of the resulting research agenda include calls for more clinical process-oriented research, further attention to context, shifting the level of analysis, and a need to integrate across disciplines.Originality/valueThis paper incorporates a broad insight of ET across academic disciplines to show how future contributions could benefit by incorporating research from other fields. In doing so, provides a starting point for more nuanced discussions around the interrelationships between the different conversations that are taking place in the ET literature.

Narcissistic Leaders-Promise or Peril? The Patterns of Narcissistic Leaders' Behaviors and Their Relation to Team Performance.

Leader narcissism has attracted substantial attention in leadership research and organizational practice. Yet, the exact relationship between leader narcissism and performance remains unclear. In this paper, we set out to illuminate the narcissism-leadership-performance puzzle. We build on research that points to a curvilinear relationship between leader narcissism and performance and open the black box behind this curvilinear relationship. Thereby, we take into consideration the context, in which narcissistic leaders act, and explore their leadership behaviors in a compelling context: entrepreneurial teams. In a quantitative study, we found that a moderate level of leader narcissism was associated with the best team performance as assessed by the quality of a business plan. In a qualitative follow-up interview study, we explored the patterns of leadership behaviors shown by narcissists to better understand how different behaviors combine into effective versus destructive leadership, shaping team performance eventually. Finally, in an experimental online study using the scenario technique, we investigated the relevance of these leadership patterns associated with different levels of narcissism across contexts. The results of our multi-method and multi-source studies suggest that the most promising avenue to understand the narcissism-leadership-performance puzzle is that it depends on the levels of narcissism and more specifically that it depends on the patterns of behaviors narcissistic leaders show—the context seems to play a less important role.

Entrepreneurial Bricolage and New Product Development Performance in New Ventures: The Contingent Effects of Founding Team Involvement

Abstract New product development (NPD) performance is a key determinant of a new venture’s success. However, compared with established firms, new ventures often suffer from resource constraints when developing new products. Entrepreneurial bricolage is reported in the literature as an alternative strategic option that enables managers to overcome resource constraints when developing new products. However, because new ventures are often founded by an entrepreneurial team, the effectiveness and efficiency of using bricolage to improve NPD performance might be contingent on how the founding team plays its roles in this process. Using data from 323 new ventures in China, we find support for the critical role of entrepreneurial bricolage in improving NPD success under resource constraints. More importantly, our results reveal that the bricolage strategy is more likely to benefit a venture when the founding team is composed of members with diverse functional backgrounds and is not heavily involved in strategic decision-making.

Psychological ownership development in new venture teams

Psychological ownership (PO) is important for organisational climate and outcomes, yet, little is known about collective forms of PO in emerging entrepreneurial teams. Based on an in-depth study of a new venture team over three years, we sketch a process model of collective PO development. While studies on individual PO in established organisations highlight individual needs in triggering processes of PO development, our study indicates the importance of temporal, role-based, and input-based alignment of interpersonal processes for the emergence of collective PO in new venture teams. We discuss insights for research on new venture teams and research on small groups.

When passions collide: Passion convergence in entrepreneurial teams.

Extant research on passion is replete with individual-level studies. Although team-level studies have emerged, these empirical studies have adopted a static approach. We pivot from the predominant static focus on passion by examining passion convergence, or the dynamic pattern of increasing similarity in passion among members of a team. Drawing on multilevel theory of emergence in teams and using the novel consensus emergence model approach, we theorize the phenomenon of passion convergence and focus on how within-team experiences of progress and setback shape passion convergence. We also analyze the impact of passion convergence on team performance. Data from 314 individuals nested in 82 new venture teams indicate that experiencing team progress facilitated passion convergence, whereas experiencing team setbacks did not have a significant impact on passion convergence. Results also suggest that teams with members converging on a high level of passion positively predicted team performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical significance of our study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Opportunity evaluation in teams: A social cognitive model

Research on opportunity evaluation is flourishing but we know little about how teams evaluate opportunities rather than individuals. Conceptualizing opportunity evaluation as a collective process, we develop an agent-based model to investigate how the social cognitive mechanisms of team formation affect the ability of entrepreneurial teams to choose good opportunities and forgo bad ones. We find that opportunity evaluation decisions depend on the cognitive status of the lead entrepreneurs who found the team and the team formation strategy they use, i.e., whether they select team members based on interpersonal similarity (i.e., cognitive homophily) or complementary knowledge (i.e., cognitive heterophily). Moreover, we show that learning moderates the effects of team formation on opportunity evaluation. Overall, our work provides a new view of opportunity evaluation as a dynamic social process contingent upon entrepreneurs' networks and team founders' characteristics and their choices of who to turn for judgments of an opportunity's potential.

Incorporating non‐academics in academic spin‐off entrepreneurial teams: the vertical diversity that can make the difference

To enhance the development of academic spin‐offs, surrogate (external) entrepreneurs are often added to the entrepreneurial team comprising academics. Existing research focused on entrepreneurial team diversity (horizontal member differences) and has mixed results. Vertical member differences (i.e., inequality) between academics and non‐academics are not addressed. However, strategic decision making is one of the main responsibilities of an entrepreneurial team. Decision‐making power, as reflected in ownership, in particular, is thus of the essence. Based on a sample of 164 Italian academic spin‐offs, this article investigates the impacts of both horizontal and vertical heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams on the firms’ performance. The findings confirm that surrogate entrepreneurs generally make a positive contribution to academic spin‐off performance but become counter‐productive when their presence overpowers that of academics.

Exploring the development of entrepreneurial identity in a learning-by-doing entrepreneurial project environment

PurposeUnderstanding the construction of individual entrepreneurial identity for entrepreneurship education is an important but understudied issue. Prior studies indicate that entrepreneurship learning is associated with not only learning critical entrepreneurial skills and knowledge but also facilitating the construction of a personal entrepreneurial identity. However, educators are constantly challenged by the task of facilitating such an identity within students via learning-by-doing processes in the context of entrepreneurial teams. Additionally, while effective conflict management is essential to productive entrepreneurial learning in entrepreneurial teams, studies that investigate the relationships between interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams and the students' entrepreneurial identity are absent.Design/methodology/approachThe approach of an in-depth case study was adopted to achieve our research purpose.FindingsA conceptual model that describes the construction of the entrepreneurial identity of students of entrepreneurial teams in a learning-by-doing environment from the perspectives of conflicts and task characteristics are developed.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings highlight the preliminary relationships between task characteristics (i.e. task interdependence, task uncertainty, resource competition and tension regarding responsibility allocation) and interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams, and their impacts on the entrepreneurial identity of team members.Originality/valueThis study is among the first group of studies that especially explores the relationships among task characteristics of entrepreneurship projects, interpersonal conflicts and the development of students' entrepreneurial identity.

Standing up against crisis-induced entrepreneurial uncertainty: Fewer teams, more habitual entrepreneurs

The global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus–2) has led to drastic infection control measures that have dramatically affected societies and economies worldwide. Against this background, it is the purpose of this commentary to illustrate how innovative entrepreneurial activity in particular has been affected by the rising uncertainty caused by the first COVID-19 wave. By comparing innovative North American and European startups established pre-crisis and during the first wave of the pandemic, this commentary suggests that startups founded in the crisis are characterised less by entrepreneurial teams and more by habitual entrepreneurs. Interestingly, female entrepreneurial activity seems not to have been affected by the crisis when measured as the proportion of women founders involved in innovative startups pre-crisis and during crisis. The commentary thus, illustrates what particular type of entrepreneur persists during rising uncertainty and allows us to draw conclusions for policy-making and further research on the interface of entrepreneurship, crisis and uncertainty.

Deconstructing the shared leadership emergence process in entrepreneurial teams

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.

Gastrointestinal Consequences of Discharged COVID-19 Patients: A Multicenter Cohort Study

Background: The majority of COVID-19 patients presented persisting symptoms after discharge. We aimed to determine the long-term enteric consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to identify the risk and the protective factors for gastrointestinal sequelae.Methods: A retrospective cohort of 117 SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid positive patients hospitalized in 12 hospitals from January 16 to March 7, 2020 were included in this study. Clinical data collected during hospitalization, from return visits and from telephone interviews in 3 months after discharge were reviewed. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify the risk and the protective factors for any and individual gastrointestinal sequelae.Findings: In three months after discharge, 53 patients (45%) presented at least one gastrointestinal sequelae. Common gastrointestinal sequelae included loss of appetite (28 patients, 24%), nausea (21 patients, 18%), acid reflux (21 patients, 18%), and diarrhea (17 patients, 15%). Decreased blood oxygen saturation and PPI treatment were risk factors, while enteral nutrition was a protective factor for gastrointestinal sequelae in general. For individual gastrointestinal sequelae, the decreased blood oxygen saturation was a risk factor, while male sex was a protective factor for loss of appetite after discharge. For nausea after discharge, PPI treatment was a risk factor while parenteral nutrition was a protective factor. Decreased blood oxygen saturation, BMI >25, and PPI treatment were risk factors for acid reflux after discharge. And finally, male sex was a risk factor for diarrhea after discharge.Interpretation: At three months after discharge, gastrointestinal sequelae were still common in recovering COVID-19 patients. Decreased blood oxygen saturation, PPI treatment, BMI >25, and male sex are risk factors, while nutritional support and male sex are protective factors, for gastrointestinal sequelae. Our data highlight the importance of gastrointestinal care and nutritional support for discharged COVID-19 patients.Funding: Guangdong Province “Pearl River Talent Plan” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Team Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Key Clinical Discipline of China.Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no competing interests.Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Sun Yat-sen University and the participating hospitals.

Does the ideal entrepreneurial team exist?

Up until now, studies on entrepreneurs and their relationship to business performance have focused primarily on analyzing the entrepreneur as an individual. While studies have been conducted on the entrepreneurial team, their focus has centered on team size and degree of diversity - cultural, age, gender - leaving a gap in the analysis of the effect of a team’s competencies on the outcome of the ventures. This research aims to help fill this gap by using the psychometric instrument DISC. This research analyzes entrepreneurship by opportunity, evaluating the performance of 109 Colombian companies and the composition of their entrepreneurial teams. The results obtained provide the basis for better understanding of the make-up of entrepreneurial teams, considering the variances and interdependencies of the competency development level among their members. They reveal that identifying the similarity or heterogeneity in certain groups of competencies, as well as how developed they are, can have an impact on the ventures’ success. The cluster analysis carried out suggests that highly developed competencies associated with the ‘dominance’ dimension in the members of an entrepreneurial team are essential. These must be above-average in heterogeneous levels among the team members. They must also be accompanied by the ‘steadiness’ competency provided by the team-oriented partners, as well as an average, homogeneous level of competencies associated with ‘conscientiousness’ if the new business is to achieve good financial results in its early years. The ‘influence’ dimension did not play a significant role. The teams made up of more homogeneous partners obtained the poorest financial results. Furthermore, the study provides new perspectives for measuring business performance in a venture, as well as for evaluating the relationships between the entrepreneurial team's competencies and the company’s results in the first years of business. Accordingly, it offers inputs for future research.

Diversity matters: the influence of gender diversity on\xa0the environmental orientation of entrepreneurial ventures

Environmental 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.

Enlightenment of China’s University Teachers’ Entrepreneurial Awareness for Entrepreneurship Education

This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to study the understanding of China’s university teachers (hereinafter referred to as teachers) on the preparation period of entrepreneurship. Through questionnaire survey, factor analysis and fuzzy evaluation, we get the classification of the factors of entrepreneurship by teachers, including education factors, social factors, and policy factors.Teachers believe that the most important primary influencing factors of entrepreneurship formation is founders’ fundamentals, the most important secondary influencing factors is social factors. In addition, the main impact of teacher entrepreneurship awareness on entrepreneurship education is as follows: in the competition and practice of entrepreneurial projects, on-campus entrepreneurial teachers mainly participate as assistants and they are quite passive. It may be because that their participation motivation is departed from the purpose of entrepreneurship. Off-campus entrepreneurship tutors focus more on the ability of the social entrepreneurial team to marketize the products or services.

Perceived Environmental Dynamism Promotes Entrepreneurial Team Member’s Innovation: Explanations Based on the Uncertainty Reduction Theory

This study aims to examine the effect of perceived environmental dynamism on entrepreneurial team member’s innovation. Based on the uncertainty reduction theory, this study constructs a multilevel moderated mediation model of the relationship between perceived environmental dynamism and entrepreneurial team member’s innovation. By collecting questionnaires from 117 entrepreneurial team leaders and 479 team members in China, this research found that perceived environmental dynamism could stimulate entrepreneurial team members’ innovation via triggering their information exchange behavior. In addition, entrepreneurial team members’ intolerance for uncertainty and team cooperative climate can moderate the indirect positive relationship between perceived environmental dynamism and individual innovation. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of entrepreneurial team members’ responses to dynamic environment and their innovation behavior.