
Management Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
12-2014
Publication Source
Strategic Management Journal
Volume
35
Issue
12
Start Page
1798
Last Page
1817
DOI
10.1002/smj.2183
Abstract
How does the relationship between founding team composition and venture performance depend on the venture's strategy and business environment? Using data from a novel survey of 2,067 firms, we show that while diverse founding teams tend to exhibit higher performance, this is not universally true. We find that founding teams that are diverse are likely to achieve high performance in a competitive commercialization environment. On the other hand, technically focused founding teams are aligned with a cooperative commercialization environment and when the enterprise pursues an innovation strategy. These results are robust to corrections for endogenous team formation concerns. The findings suggest that ventures cannot ignore founding team composition and expect to later professionalize their top management teams to align with their strategy and environment.
Copyright/Permission Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: C.E. Eesley, D.H. Hsu & E.B. Roberts, (2014), "The Contingent Effects of Top Management Teams on Venture Performance: Aligning Founding Team Composition With Innovation Strategy and Commercialization Environment, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.2183. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving [http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-820227.html#terms].
Keywords
founding teams, entrepreneurship, venture performance
Recommended Citation
Eesley, C. E., Hsu, D. H., & Roberts, E. B. (2014). The Contingent Effects of Top Management Teams on Venture Performance: Aligning Founding Team Composition With Innovation Strategy and Commercialization Environment. Strategic Management Journal, 35 (12), 1798-1817. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.2183
Date Posted: 19 February 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.