Entrepreneurial Teams Research Articles

On Resource Complementarity Among Startups, Accelerators, and Financial Investors: a Large-scale Analysis of Sorting and Value Creation

We propose a theoretical framework and provide empirical evidence on how resource complementarity or substitutability between entrepreneurs and seed investors drives selection and value creation in the context of high-tech startups. Specifically, we argue that seed investors specialized in training programs - startup accelerators - are the ideal match for entrepreneurial teams equipped with strong technological competencies but lacking business knowledge. On the other hand, when entrepreneurs with extensive business knowledge pair up with accelerators, the value created is typically less. Combining information from Crunchbase and LinkedIn, we provide robust empirical evidence based on the assortative matching of startups and investors and the ex-post analysis of joint value creation.

Unraveling key factors enhancing female entrepreneurial performance in China: a pls-sem and fsqca analysis

This study not only illuminates the complex interplay of factors affecting the entrepreneurial performance of 558 Chinese female entrepreneurs but also significantly contributes to the burgeoning literature on gender dynamics in entrepreneurship. By employing a gender-aware framework and mixed methods, including Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), it breaks new ground in understanding the unique challenges and opportunities faced by female entrepreneurs. The identification of digital ability, opportunity development, entrepreneurial team heterogeneity, work-family conflict, and gender stereotypes as pivotal elements offer valuable insights for crafting targeted support strategies and policies to enhance female entrepreneurial performance (FEP). Furthermore, the study’s revelation of two distinct pathways to enhance FEP not only provides practical guidance for aspiring female entrepreneurs but also lays the groundwork for future research to explore the nuanced interactions between these factors.

Entrepreneurial teams and gender roles: evidence from equity crowdfunding achievement

Entrepreneurial teams and gender roles: evidence from equity crowdfunding achievement

Educational Management Strategies to Promote the Sustainable Development of Entrepreneurship of Students in Higher Vocational Colleges

The This paper aims to explore educational management strategies for promoting the sustainable development of entrepreneurship among students in higher vocational colleges. The research subjects consist of 400 students from 10 higher vocational colleges in Guangdong Province. Based on the data analysis results from a questionnaire survey of these 400 students and interviews with 12 experts, it is concluded that the factors influencing the sustainable development of entrepreneurship among students in higher vocational colleges include entrepreneurship knowledge, entrepreneurship teams, entrepreneurial experience, entrepreneurial capital, and entrepreneurial skills. Additionally, the influencing environmental factors encompass the market environment, educational management environment, policy and legal environment, and family environment. Combining SWOT, PEST, and TOWS matrix analyses, this paper proposes educational management strategies to foster the sustainable development of entrepreneurship among students in higher vocational colleges. These strategies aim to cultivate students' entrepreneurial spirit, provide more entrepreneurial talents to society, and promote the sustainable development of the social economy.

Framing Intra-Team Conflicts in a New Venture: The Interplay of Conflict Resolution Frames and Negotiation Strategies

This experiential exercise introduces students to the role that frames play in conflict management and negotiation. Understanding frames is important because they serve as lenses through which negotiators define a conflict and select strategies to resolve it. Students will apply conflict resolution frames to a situation that occurred within an entrepreneurial team, but key details have been disguised and fictionalized. Engaging in this exercise allows students to experience how framing conflicts in terms of interests, rights, or power affects the process of negotiation, the choice of situationally appropriate strategies, and the outcomes for individuals and their organizations. Students will consider ways to reframe negotiations around shared interests to benefit the collective. The exercise can be used across management and entrepreneurship courses, but may fit best in negotiation and organizational behavior. It works well in any format, traditional and online, with graduate and undergraduate students.

Bridging the Skillset Gaps in University-Based Incubators

Entrepreneurship is a driving force in today's rapidly evolving economy, offering avenues for innovation, economic growth, and societal impact. However, engineering entrepreneurial teams often encounter skill gaps that can impede their ability to navigate the complexities of starting and growing a business effectively. Addressing these skillset gaps is crucial for empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape. University-based incubators (UBIs) play a significant role in this endeavor, providing a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurial development within academic institutions. This paper aims to explore the skillset gaps in UBIs affiliated with engineering departments, through a systemic literature review on this topic, complemented by a series of one-to-one interviews with directors, mentors, and investors at various UBIs. The results of this study align with existing literature and highlight a recurring theme regarding the difficulties faced by engineering entrepreneurial teams in areas such as soft skills, as well as challenges related to financial literacy, research proficiency, and sales capabilities. This work aims to delve into specific areas in greater depth and discusses potential pedagogical approaches that could enhance the learnings of these skills with no direct relation to concepts of entrepreneurship.

A Methodological Investigation of Design and Mentoring Processes in Start-Up Incubation

Purpose Incubators have long been relevant actors in the development of start-ups. This paper proposes studying mentoring in incubators as a decision aiding process that aids a specific design process, namely the activities of a start-up during incubation. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, this paper assumes a parallelism between mentoring and decision aiding, as well as between business modelling and a design process. According to this approach, mentors are viewed as decision aiding actors who operate within Contexts of Action and adopt more or less appropriate tools to aid business modelling design activities. A protocol analysis was carried out on 86 mentoring sessions with 53 entrepreneurial teams at the I3P Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino. Findings The study allowed us to obtain a deep understanding of the mentoring activities and the appropriateness of the tools used in each phase of the incubation process. Originality This paper introduces five elements of novelty. First, it looks at business mentoring as a decision aiding process of a design process, specifically the incubation process; second, this has allowed us to refer to a framework provided by the Decision Aiding literature; third, it adopts an alternative research approach to surveys, questionnaires and interviews; fourth, it provides an abstract/standardised unit of analysis to describe the situational nature of mentoring. Finally, it identifies the building blocks of mentoring and how the activities are methodologically conducted.

The antecedent, moderator and consequence of humor behaviors in entrepreneurial teams

The antecedent, moderator and consequence of humor behaviors in entrepreneurial teams

Decision‐making in entrepreneurial teams with competing economic and noneconomic goals

AbstractResearch SummaryHow should decision‐making be organized in entrepreneurial teams pursuing competing economic and noneconomic goals? Using a computational model, we examine how four archetypical decision‐making structures—unanimous approval, individual autonomy, majority voting, and lead entrepreneur—shape the performance of entrepreneurial firms when team members hold varied preferences for how to tradeoff economic and noneconomic goals. In stable environments, we find that majority voting generates highest economic performance, while unanimous approval generates highest noneconomic performance. Conversely, unanimous approval outperforms in fast‐changing contexts. Although goal diversity generally reduces economic performance, it enhances it in fast‐changing settings when teams operate under unanimous approval. This study thus underscores the critical role of decision‐making structures for the success of entrepreneurial teams.Managerial SummaryHow should entrepreneurial teams make decisions when balancing economic and noneconomic goals? We examine four decision‐making approaches—unanimous approval, individual autonomy, majority voting, and lead entrepreneur—and their impact on economic and noneconomic performance. In stable environments, majority voting leads to highest economic performance, while unanimous approval excels in achieving noneconomic goals. In fast‐paced environments, unanimous approval consistently delivers superior outcomes, enhancing both economic and noneconomic performance. Notably, teams with diverse goals can improve their economic performance in high‐velocity settings when using unanimous approval. These findings highlight the importance of choosing the right decision‐making structure to optimize performance in varying conditions. For entrepreneurial teams, adapting decision‐making processes to the pace of the environment is essential for success.

Lessons from Team Entrepreneurship Research for General Entrepreneurship Theory

This paper suggests that the theory of entrepreneurship needs to be amended. This paper first shows how the phenomenon of entrepreneurial teams has become established in practice and in the literature. Then the axioms of entrepreneurship theory are discussed. This paper (with a literature review and GEM data) argues that there is an inconsistency within entrepreneurship theory: in order not to have to change the axioms of entrepreneurship theory, entrepreneurial teams were assumed to consist of individual entrepreneurs. This paper explains how that impedes advances in theory development and suggests a new taxonomy of entrepreneurs: the individual entrepreneur, the individual entrepreneur in a team, and a socially minded true team entrepreneur.

Investing in people, not in products: how age, gender, ethnicity, and attractiveness of entrepreneurial teams influence the decision-making of angel investors in Germany

The high-risk decision environment and information asymmetries associated with investing in early-stage startups in pitch competitions make angel investors prone to biased decision-making. Drawing from social perception theory, this study examines how angel investors’ decisions are influenced by observed personal characteristics of entrepreneurial teams, based on representative stereotypes. Analyzing a dataset of N = 553 startup pitches from the German televised competition Die Höhle der Löwen, this study reveals that the likelihood of securing deals with German angel investors and the resulting business valuations are linked to certain superficial team characteristics. Specifically, the age, diverse ethnicity, and physical attractiveness of the entrepreneurial team have a significant positive effect on deal probabilities. Moreover, angel investors offer lower deal valuations to teams of older and female entrepreneurs, suggesting the presence of a systematic bias. These insights contribute to understanding the role of stereotypes in entrepreneurial finance and address the challenges related to bias in access to capital for early-stage startups in Germany.

A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE HETEROGENITY ON TEAM CREATIVITY

This study categorizes the knowledge heterogeneity of "Internet+" college student innovation and entrepreneurship teams into three dimensions: explicit, pseudo-hidden, and true hidden. It examines their impact on team creativity by introducing team identification as a moderating variable. We construct a theoretical model from the perspective of team collaboration, drawing on knowledge innovation theory and social identity theory. We conducted the empirical study using SPSS and AMOS software, based on questionnaire data from 136 "Internet+" college student innovation and entrepreneurship competition teams. The results show that explicit and pseudo-hidden knowledge heterogeneity has significant positive effects on team creativity, whereas true hidden knowledge heterogeneity has a negative impact. Furthermore, team identification plays different moderating roles in the relationships between pseudo-hidden, true hidden knowledge heterogeneity, and team creativity.

How Entrepreneurial Teams' Heterogeneity and Learning Experiences Affect Business Performance through Self-Efficacy

How Entrepreneurial Teams' Heterogeneity and Learning Experiences Affect Business Performance through Self-Efficacy

Influencing Factors of Sustainable Rural Entrepreneurship: A Four-Dimensional Evaluation System Encompassing Entrepreneurs, Economy, Society, and Environment

The implementation of rural entrepreneurship emerges as a pivotal pathway for fostering rural economic growth. However, unsustainable entrepreneurial endeavors have posed notable ecological threats and environmental degradation. Drawing upon the triple bottom line framework, this research devised a comprehensive evaluation system for sustainable rural entrepreneurship, spanning four dimensions: entrepreneurs, economic, social, and environmental aspects. Employing the fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DANP) approach, we delineated the intricate causal relationships among influencing factors and identified key determinants along with their respective weights. Our findings underscore the prominence of economic dimensions in fostering sustainable rural entrepreneurship. Specifically, entrepreneurial motivation, type of entrepreneurship, financial backing, economic value, favorable policy frameworks, and a conducive business environment emerged as pivotal indicators. Notably, the type of entrepreneurship, financial support, economic value, and favorable policies emerged as propelling factors driving sustainable rural entrepreneurial progress. Conversely, entrepreneurial motivation and the business environment manifested as dependent factors within this causal nexus. This study offers valuable managerial implications for entrepreneurial teams and pertinent government agencies, enabling decision-makers to formulate evidence-based strategies aimed at realizing sustainable rural entrepreneurship.

Challenges of Preparing Students for International Entrepreneurship in the era of Artificial Intelligence

International entrepreneurship competencies in the era of rapidly developing artificial intelligence focus more than earlier on stepping out of one’s comfort zone, asking the right questions, assessing the reliability of information sources, and developing cross-cultural teamwork readiness. The purpose of this research is to prepare students for collaborative learning situations where generative artificial intelligence tools have become widely available. The main research question is: What are the challenges in different types of entrepreneurial team-based action learning projects in the context of artificial intelligence? Learning concepts based on collaborative learning and improving the international networking readiness of students are presented. Practical implications of time zone differences, trust building and conflict management in international teams are analysed based on the experience of X-Culture projects. We compare the opportunities and challenges of applying generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT-4, Microsoft Co-pilot and Google Gemini Advanced when developing learners’ own international business ideas to learning from international teamwork to assist foreign start-ups in entering new markets. Gaps in skills to apply human collaboration for critically assessing artificial intelligence summary answers and identifying possible hallucinations when comparing new potential foreign markets were revealed. Artificial intelligence applications can be used to form global student teams based on the similarity of entrepreneurial self-development visions of team members. Still, experimenting with prompts in these applications can also enhance readiness to compare the pros and cons of different international entrepreneurship concepts and intelligent questioning skills for coaching and consulting. Students can chat with AI in a role-playing manner that helps them understand how to manage cultural differences in international entrepreneurship teams. Online action learning driven by tasks of start-ups is an essential tool in the entrepreneurial learning approach that prepares students to understand the value and limitations of generative artificial intelligence tools for international entrepreneurship. This paper contributes to understanding the challenges in action learning of students for international entrepreneurship and ways to overcome these challenges in the era when generative artificial intelligence tools are changing learning and international entrepreneurship practices.

Unraveling the dark side of resilience: entrepreneurial resilience diversity in new venture teams and entrepreneurial performance

PurposePrevious studies may have overstated the benefits of entrepreneurial resilience while neglecting its potential adverse effects, especially in the context of team entrepreneurship. This study focuses on the structural characteristics of resilience, entrepreneurial team resilience diversity, to delve into the potential dark side effects of entrepreneurial resilience. Drawn upon the similarity-attraction theory, this study investigates the detrimental impact of entrepreneurial team resilience diversity on entrepreneurial performance from the team-member exchange (TMX) perspective, which describes the reciprocal relationships within a team and the moderating effect of environmental hostility.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data by conducting a two-wave survey. With the assistance of officials from entrepreneurship service agencies, entrepreneurship parks and entrepreneurship training institutions in southeast China, this study collected survey data from 361 participants of 91 entrepreneurial teams. The current research conducted empirical tests with SPSS and PROCESS macro to test the hypotheses.FindingsEmpirical results from a two-wave survey of 91 entrepreneurial teams in China reveal the detrimental effects of entrepreneurial resilience. In the context of team entrepreneurship, the diversity of a team’s entrepreneurial resilience negatively impacts entrepreneurial performance by impairing the quality of TMX. Moreover, the indirect effect of TMX is strengthened in more hostile environments.Originality/valueExisting studies have mainly focused on the positive side of resilience. However, based on the similarity-attraction theory, this study explores the potential adverse effects of the structural characteristics of entrepreneurial team resilience from the perspective of team-member exchange (TMX). This study enriches the literature on resilience by demonstrating how resilience functions in new venture teams and challenges the assumption that resilience is universally beneficial to entrepreneurs. Introducing team members with high resilience in a hostile environment may not always benefit the team, deepening the understanding of entrepreneurial resilience when confronting adversities.

The Investment Evaluation Standards and Process of Venture Capital Industry in Taiwan: Taking T Venture Capital Company as an Example

Abstract The venture capital industry is characterized by high risk and high reward, demanding sharp market insight and strong assessment capabilities. This article examines the evaluation criteria used by T Venture Capital Company in selecting investment targets, offering a reference for the industry. The study utilizes a case study method, focusing on an experienced venture capital firm identified through the Taiwan Venture Capital Association's 2022 roster. Key findings from interviews and document analysis highlight five main criteria used by T Company: 1. Adjusting evaluation based on the investment stage and industry specifics. 2. Focusing on the entrepreneurial team’s background, skills, passion, and vision. 3. Prioritizing technological innovation and business model sustainability. 4. Ensuring a clear exit strategy with ongoing communication. 5. Conducting thorough due diligence for sound investment decisions. The study reveals that T Company relies on a mix of data, judgment, and flexibility in its decision-making process, adapting to each unique situation. Keywords: Venture Capital, Evaluation Criteria, Entrepreneurial Team, Technological Innovation, Due Diligence.

Love or Collegiality? How Growth Aspirations Influence Relational Capital in Entrepreneurial Teams

Love or Collegiality? How Growth Aspirations Influence Relational Capital in Entrepreneurial Teams

Staying Ablaze - Passion Regulation in Failing and Non-Failing Entrepreneurial Teams

Staying Ablaze - Passion Regulation in Failing and Non-Failing Entrepreneurial Teams

Functional heterogeneity in digital entrepreneurial teams and pivoting: the role of digital agility

PurposeThe rapid development of digital technologies drives digital entrepreneurs to pivot, a behavior that allows entrepreneurs to adjust original opportunities and explore new opportunities. This study aims to investigate the effect of the structural characteristics of digital entrepreneurial teams, the functional heterogeneity, on pivoting from the perspective of digital agility. Moreover, this study also examines the moderating effect of knowledge sharing.Design/methodology/approachTwo-phase survey data were sourced from Chinese digital entrepreneurial teams through the entrepreneurial networks of MBA programs of a Chinese business school and entrepreneurial support organizations in China. The sample of 272 teams with 708 entrepreneurs was collected to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe functional heterogeneity of digital entrepreneurial teams, including industry background heterogeneity and occupational experience heterogeneity, positively impacts pivoting by providing heterogeneous knowledge and resources. Moreover, this relationship is mediated by the digital agility of the digital team, and knowledge sharing moderates the relationship between functional heterogeneity and digital agility.Originality/valueWhile existing studies have mainly focused on the external factors, this study empirically investigates the team-level internal factors of digital pivoting in digital entrepreneurial teams, enriching the research perspective of pivoting. Moreover, the current study bridges the literature on digital agility with pivoting, broadening the theoretical mechanism of pivoting and expanding the theoretical boundaries of digital agility.