Nascent Entrepreneurial Teams (NETs): An Insight into Their Composition and Its Effect on Success


Hernández Sabater, Carolina Zyanya (2017) Nascent Entrepreneurial Teams (NETs): An Insight into Their Composition and Its Effect on Success. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

The thesis explored nascent entrepreneurial team (NET) composition and its effect on business success. Drawing on team formation theory (i.e. homophily, similarity- attraction paradigm, rational process model, cognitive resource perspective theory), the thesis addressed the composition, typology and effect on future success in nascent entrepreneurial businesses started by teams. To do so, this thesis addresses three research questions: 1) What types of composition are prevalent in NETs? 2) What different team profiles or types can be identified among NETs, based on their compositional dimensions? 3) What effect does NET composition have on nascent entrepreneurial success? NET composition is studied by calculating the degree of diversity and physical proximity within the team. In line with the current literature, four dimensions of NET composition are examined: Demographic Diversity, Human Capital, Resource Heterogeneity, and Familiarity. The research is conducted by using data from the US Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics II. The dataset provides information on each team member of the NET and records information about the business over a period of five years. This enables examination of NET composition and its effect on the nascent business success. Thus, the units of analysis considered in this thesis are the team for the predictor variables and the firm for the outcome variables. Overall, the quantitative exploratory study revealed that NET composition has an effect on the probability of success as a nascent business, but has no significant impact on the time taken to achieve success The present thesis makes original contributions to the existing body of knowledge on entrepreneurship in three ways. First, this thesis adds to entrepreneurship literature by exploring to what extent team formation theory can be applied in the nascent entrepreneurial context. Second, this thesis considers the effect of team composition on three dimensions of success, which aims to clarify the current debate regarding success measurement when studying nascent entrepreneurial stage. Third, this thesis introduces an innovative way to study NET composition by considering a typological approach, which at the same time adds to the few methodological efforts to use clustering in entrepreneurial research. Lastly, the findings of this thesis have implications for practitioners, advisory bodies, and policy-makers. For practitioners, the conclusions suggest that attention should be given to identify the potential limitations and advantages related to the team composition/configuration. For advisory or consultant bodies, the present results are helpful in designing better support programmes and training courses for NETs. Finally, while this thesis does not explicitly concern itself with entrepreneurial policy, its findings can suggest a number of implications worth of attention in support to entrepreneurial activity.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords: nascent entrepreneurship, success, teams
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 09 Aug 2018 12:49
Last Modified: 16 Jan 2024 17:21
DOI: 10.17638/03022717
Supervisors:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3022717
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