Entrepreneurial Teams

Many of the most successful young ventures are founded by entrepreneurial teams rather than individual entrepreneurs. Founding in a team offers several benefits such as a broader pool of human capital, division of labor, and mutual psychological support. Sometimes, however, team processes can become problematic when conflicts emerge and/or team members leave the firm. 

An important research stream therefore investigates how detrimental team processes are managed effectively, and how ventures can best capitalize on their team's resources. For example, in the past our group has studied how the composition of the team influences the performance of young biotechnology ventures, and how such influences depend on the business models of the firm (Patzelt, zu Knyphausen-Aufseß & Nikol, 2008). More recently, we have started to take a more psychological and cognitive perspective on entrepreneurial teams and, for example, investigate the role of metacognition and information sharing between team members in dynamic decision tasks (Breugst, Shepherd, & Patzelt, 2010), the teams' and team members' ability to assess their decision making performance (Breugst, Patzelt, Shepherd, & Aguinis, 2012), and the consequences of equity distribution in entrepreneurial teams (Breugst, Patzelt, & Rathgeber, 2015).

References:

Breugst, N., Patzelt, H., & Rathgeber, P. (2015). How should we divide the pie? Equity distribution and its impact on entrepreneurial teams. Journal of Business Venturing, 30 (1), 66-94.

Breugst, N., Patzelt, H., Shepherd, D. A., & Aguinis, H. (2012). Relationship conflict improves team performance assessment accuracy: Evidence from a multilevel study. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 11 (2), 187-206.

Breugst, N., Shepherd, D.A., & Patzelt, H. (2010). Decision biases in entrepreneurial teams. Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), Lausanne, Switzerland, June 10-12, 2010.

Patzelt, H., zu Knyphausen-Aufseß, D., & Nikol, P. (2008). Top management teams, business models, and the performance of biotechnology ventures: An upper echelon perspective. British Journal of Management, 19 (3), 205-221.