Deconstructing the shared leadership emergence process in entrepreneurial teams

Abstract

PurposeEntrepreneurship literature has not sufficiently explored the process of how, at different points in time, different members of the co-founding team emerge as leaders. The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the phenomenon of shared leadership emergence process amongst co-founders in entrepreneurial teams.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a qualitative approach. 21 co-founders from 7 entrepreneurial teams participated in the study. In-depth interviews were conducted. The data were analysed using Nvivo 11 software.FindingsThe study elaborates the process model of shared leadership emergence. The study found that shared interpersonal cognition and trust amongst the co-founders lead to claiming and granting of leadership. The findings also illustrate various strategies used by co-founders to emerge as leaders.Practical implicationsThe findings provide key insights to entrepreneurial teams by illuminating what kind of leadership dynamics should be developed, right from the initial stages of the venture. Also, the findings would be beneficial to investors, mentors and coaches of the entrepreneurial teams and ventures, by highlighting team dynamics to be considered before making any investment or team development decisions.Originality/valueThe inductive approach adopted in the study helps in understanding the process of shared leadership emergence in entrepreneurial teams, which is not adequately answered by previous studies. The study extends both shared leadership and entrepreneurship literature by providing a process theory of leadership emergence.

New venture top management team's shared leadership and its indirect effect on strategic performance: findings from SEM and fsQCA

“…In addition, following the suggestion of Wassenaar and Pearce (2018), to implement shared leadership in practice, team members must focus on interpersonal trust and develop what scholars call transactive memory. This has been confirmed with evidence in the latest research of Lyndon and Pandey (2021), who show that trust and shared interpersonal cognition among cofounders lead to shared leadership in entrepreneurial teams.…”

“…In addition, following the suggestion of Wassenaar and Pearce (2018), to implement shared leadership in practice, team members must focus on interpersonal trust and develop what scholars call transactive memory. This has been confirmed with evidence in the latest research of Lyndon and Pandey (2021), who show that trust and shared interpersonal cognition among cofounders lead to shared leadership in entrepreneurial teams. Second, to most effectively promote the positive impact of NVTMTSL on SP, new ventures should strengthen their capabilities and skills in searching for and identifying opportunities and commit substantive resources, time and efforts to opportunity identification activities.…”

Entrepreneurial leadership in online freelancing: bricolage and project success

“…While researching Nigerian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Pulka et al (2021) found that SMEs with higher entrepreneurial orientation perform better (EL is one part of entrepreneurial orientation). Moreover, Lyndon and Pandey (2021) argue that founding members in entrepreneurial teams can exhibit leadership at different times and in different situations, as required by the problem. Therefore, organizations need this type of leadership to survive in uncertain environments by utilizing whatever resources at hand (Fontana and Musa, 2017).…”

On the role of team passion in inventing, founding and developing: what happens in the early stages of entrepreneurship?

“…Based on the entrepreneurial team literature, it can be argued that the performance of a team is influenced by a range of factors pertaining to team composition, such as individual attributes, team interactions and external circumstances (Lyndon and Pandey, 2021;Zhou et al, 2017;Jin et al, 2017). By focusing on TEP, several questions are raised, such as whether team mechanisms (e.g.…”