Gründerteams

Many entrepreneurs begin entirely on their own. But empirically, teams of entrepreneurs are more likely to start successful businesses than solo entrepreneurs. This is particularly true for high-tech start-ups. There is less consensus in the existing literature on the optimal composition of founding teams. While there are some good theoretical arguments favoring team heterogenity in terms of competences and experiences, there is also a cost of heterogenous entreprenurial teams: Slower decision making and more potential for conflicts. Furthermore, there are many different criteria to judge the heterogenity of an entrepreneurial team, e.g. age, gender, nationality or personal values. One important empirical finding is that entrepreneurs show homophily when selecting team members, i.e. they prefer team mates who are similar to themselves. Another important finding refers to the way a team interacts. The more cohesion there is i.e. the more the individual team members want to work together and avoid personal conflicts, the more successful the start-up will be. Finally, empirical studies show that the structure of founder teams frequently changes over time. Thus, the phenomenon of entrepreneurial teams is dynamic in nature, not static.