Entrepreneurial Team Formation

Abstract

Entrepreneurial team formation—the process through which founders establish a team to start a new venture—has important implications for team performance and entrepreneurial success. Although research on entrepreneurial team formation is gradually growing, it is at a critical juncture and marked by considerable fragmentation. In part, this is because scholars have examined entrepreneurial team formation through different disciplinary lenses and within very different contexts. Our structured content analysis situates the literature based on questions addressed for new venture team formation, such as why, how, when, and where entrepreneurial teams are formed. The resulting integrative framework delineates the dynamic nature of the formation process, the origins of new venture teams, primary formation strategies used to initiate cofounding relations, and their effects on team characteristics, processes, and performance. Two key insights emerge to guide future research. One, the need for integration, especially across disciplines and contexts, acknowledging the role of the latter in shaping the formation process. Two, the need to embrace (self-) selection and endogeneity of founding characteristics, processes, and performance outcomes to the antecedent formation stage. We conclude that entrepreneurial team formation research is a fertile ground that has met merely a fraction of its potential to advance important knowledge in the field.