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30 Years of Entrepreneurial Team Research: Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field

Received: 7 June 2021     Accepted: 1 July 2021     Published: 13 July 2021
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Abstract

This article provides a detailed review of entrepreneurial team (ET) research over 30 years across the fields of entrepreneurship, management, organizational science and psychology. 145 articles from 24 journals were identified, analyzed, and classified in the comprehensive, overarching Upper Echelons Input-Mediator-Outcome framework. This overview contributes by organizing ET research into its sub-domains, analyzing their historic developments and trends, providing guidance for positioning future research, and offering trend-based suggestions how the field can be further developed. Our analysis shows that 30 years ago, ET research was mainly concerned with the formation of ETs, and linking the founding team to venture success. During the last two decades, the focus shifted to deeper analyses of particular mediating variables, such as cognitive and affective emerging states. The most influential articles (by weighted citation) belong to the sub-domain of team composition, which has also become the most frequently studied field during the last 10 years. Authors around the world and from other scientific fields (especially management and organizational science) are now contributing to this domain, which was earlier confined mainly to entrepreneurship scholars from North America. The most widely addressed issues of concern are the lack of theoretical studies and longitudinal data, a bias towards the technology industry, the unavailability of primary data from new ventures, and conflicting findings, especially in the main trending sub-domain of team composition research and in particular on the impact of personality aspects and behavioural dynamics.

Published in Science Journal of Business and Management (Volume 9, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13
Page(s) 162-177
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Team Research, Input-Mediator-Output Framework, Literature Review, Content Analysis

References
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    Stephanie Schoss, Malte Brettel, Rene Mauer. (2021). 30 Years of Entrepreneurial Team Research: Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field. Science Journal of Business and Management, 9(3), 162-177. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13

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    ACS Style

    Stephanie Schoss; Malte Brettel; Rene Mauer. 30 Years of Entrepreneurial Team Research: Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field. Sci. J. Bus. Manag. 2021, 9(3), 162-177. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13

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    AMA Style

    Stephanie Schoss, Malte Brettel, Rene Mauer. 30 Years of Entrepreneurial Team Research: Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field. Sci J Bus Manag. 2021;9(3):162-177. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13,
      author = {Stephanie Schoss and Malte Brettel and Rene Mauer},
      title = {30 Years of Entrepreneurial Team Research: Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field},
      journal = {Science Journal of Business and Management},
      volume = {9},
      number = {3},
      pages = {162-177},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20210903.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjbm.20210903.13},
      abstract = {This article provides a detailed review of entrepreneurial team (ET) research over 30 years across the fields of entrepreneurship, management, organizational science and psychology. 145 articles from 24 journals were identified, analyzed, and classified in the comprehensive, overarching Upper Echelons Input-Mediator-Outcome framework. This overview contributes by organizing ET research into its sub-domains, analyzing their historic developments and trends, providing guidance for positioning future research, and offering trend-based suggestions how the field can be further developed. Our analysis shows that 30 years ago, ET research was mainly concerned with the formation of ETs, and linking the founding team to venture success. During the last two decades, the focus shifted to deeper analyses of particular mediating variables, such as cognitive and affective emerging states. The most influential articles (by weighted citation) belong to the sub-domain of team composition, which has also become the most frequently studied field during the last 10 years. Authors around the world and from other scientific fields (especially management and organizational science) are now contributing to this domain, which was earlier confined mainly to entrepreneurship scholars from North America. The most widely addressed issues of concern are the lack of theoretical studies and longitudinal data, a bias towards the technology industry, the unavailability of primary data from new ventures, and conflicting findings, especially in the main trending sub-domain of team composition research and in particular on the impact of personality aspects and behavioural dynamics.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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    AB  - This article provides a detailed review of entrepreneurial team (ET) research over 30 years across the fields of entrepreneurship, management, organizational science and psychology. 145 articles from 24 journals were identified, analyzed, and classified in the comprehensive, overarching Upper Echelons Input-Mediator-Outcome framework. This overview contributes by organizing ET research into its sub-domains, analyzing their historic developments and trends, providing guidance for positioning future research, and offering trend-based suggestions how the field can be further developed. Our analysis shows that 30 years ago, ET research was mainly concerned with the formation of ETs, and linking the founding team to venture success. During the last two decades, the focus shifted to deeper analyses of particular mediating variables, such as cognitive and affective emerging states. The most influential articles (by weighted citation) belong to the sub-domain of team composition, which has also become the most frequently studied field during the last 10 years. Authors around the world and from other scientific fields (especially management and organizational science) are now contributing to this domain, which was earlier confined mainly to entrepreneurship scholars from North America. The most widely addressed issues of concern are the lack of theoretical studies and longitudinal data, a bias towards the technology industry, the unavailability of primary data from new ventures, and conflicting findings, especially in the main trending sub-domain of team composition research and in particular on the impact of personality aspects and behavioural dynamics.
    VL  - 9
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Author Information
  • Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WIN), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

  • Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WIN), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

  • ESCP Europe Wirtschaftshochschule Berlin, Jean-Baptiste Say Institute for Entrepreneurship, Berlin, Germany

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