創業團隊異質性、團隊治理對創業績效的影響研究

Abstract

The researchers in the field of entrepreneurship pointed out that the entrepreneurial team plays a crucial role in the entrepreneurial activity and largely determines the success or failure of starting a business. Most successful start-ups that are winners in the regional market and in the national market are mostly start-ups with the entrepreneurial team. And more than 60% of startup failures can be attributed to the start-up team. But setting up an entrepreneurial team is not easy because building a team is a chemical reaction, not just a simple overlay of people. A human capital combination that seems competitive may actually encounter many problems in team formation, management, and working. Therefore, analyzing the composition and characteristics of the entrepreneurial team in depth and studying how to set up and manage excellent entrepreneurial team governance in order to optimize the performance of the start-ups are crucial to the success of the start-ups and to the economic restructuring and development of our country.

The Upper Echelons Theory holds that the compositional characteristics of the top management team and the team values and cognitive bases reflected in it determine the performance of the organization. That is, the performance of the startup is affected to some extent by the characteristics of the entrepreneurial team and the team heterogeneity is one of the important characteristics. According to social identity theory, heterogeneous teams tend to have more emotional conflicts and have a negative impact on teamwork and entrepreneurial performance. According to the resource-based theory, heterogeneous teams have a wider cognitive foundation and resources fundamentals enable teams to have better decision-making skills and opportunities to identify opportunities and have a positive impact on entrepreneurial performance. Through in-depth theoretical research and on-site interview, we found that both the academia and the industry agree that the heterogeneity of the entrepreneurial team will influence the performance of startups, but disagree on the kinds of influence and the mechanism. There are two reasons for this. First, the definition, measurement, and classification of team heterogeneity are different. Different types of heterogeneity may have a different impact on entrepreneurial performance under different boundary conditions. Second, the mechanism between team heterogeneity and entrepreneurial performance is still not clear, and other variables or conditions may be involved in the process.

This paper introduces the theory of team governance based on theoretical research and the practice of start-up enterprises and venture capital institutions, and deeply analyzes the relationship between the heterogeneity of start-up teams, entrepreneurial team governance and entrepreneurial performance , established a model of the influence of team heterogeneity on entrepreneurial performance, with entrepreneurial team governance as a mediator. The empirical research found that:

1. The heterogeneity of educational level in the task-related heterogeneity has a positive effect on the growth and the profitability of start-ups; the heterogeneity of education background has a positive effect on the growth of start-ups. The heterogeneity of industry experience has a negative impact on the growth and profitability of start-ups.

2. Contract governance of entrepreneurial team has a positive effect on the growth and profitability of start-ups, and the contract governance of entrepreneurial team plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between the heterogeneity of education background and the growth. The contract governance plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between heterogeneity of education and the growth and profitability.

3. The size of the start-up, the age of the start-up, and the average educational level of the entrepreneurial team all have a positive impact on the obtaining of venture capital for the start-ups. And, the greater the degree of heterogeneity of education, the more start-ups tend to implement contract governance, and the more likely start-ups are to obtain venture capital.

Based on previous studies, this research explores the mediating role of team governance variables in the relation between heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams and entrepreneurial performance and tests them with empirical methods to expand the existing theories. Moreover, based on the theoretical and in-depth interviews, this research develops a measurement of contract management and relationship governance in the entrepreneurial team, which can provide a reference for future researchers. In addition, this research tries to use the “venture capital investment decision” as the standard to measure the overall performance of start-ups, which is a useful attempt in the entrepreneurship research in China.

The results of this research help to guide the entrepreneurial team to consider the selection and recruitment of team members from the perspective of the heterogeneity of the team. It is helpful to construct a suitable heterogeneous team to help the entrepreneur achieve better performance and obtain the venture capital investment; help to improve entrepreneurship team governance and to improve entrepreneurial performance; help venture capital firms screening and judging start-ups based on entrepreneurial team characteristics and team governance, to achieve mutual benefit and win-win situation with the invested start-ups.

Date of Award	28 May 2018
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Yulin FANG (Supervisor) & Yuanxu LI (External Supervisor)