A Literature Review of the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Team Heterogeneity and Entrepreneurial Performance

Cheng Jiang

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 39, Issue 10, pp. 3 - 17 (2017)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2017.10.001

Abstract

Entrepreneurial team heterogeneity refers to the differences between the team members in the demographic characteristics, education, skills, experience, cognitive concepts, values, etc. As the entrepreneurial teams create most start-ups, the effect of entrepreneurial team heterogeneity on entrepreneurial performance has become an important issue in entrepreneurial research. Based on summarizing the research of entrepreneurial team heterogeneity, this paper divides entrepreneurial performance into three aspects: financing, innovation and growth. Then this paper reviews the literature of the effects of entrepreneurial team heterogeneity on the three respectively, and analyzes the theoretical logic behind entrepreneurial team heterogeneity affecting entrepreneurial performance. Future research should further deepen the understanding of entrepreneurial team heterogeneity, and pay more attention to the characteristics of entrepreneurial teams different from the top management teams as well as the resulting impacts. This paper finally discusses the implications of the existing research for entrepreneurial practice.

Keywords

entrepreneurial team; entrepreneurial team heterogeneity; entrepreneurial performance