Innovative Entrepreneurial Teams: The Give and Take of Trust and Conflict

Abstract

Entrepreneurship research lacks empirical evidence about interactions between entrepreneurial team members. This paper examines the role of trust (cognitive and affective) and conflict (task and relationship) on team performance (effectiveness and efficiency) of innovative entrepreneurial teams. Data originated from 88 incubator‐based entrepreneurial teams in Austria. Results indicate that cognitive trust is the cornerstone of innovative entrepreneurial team performance. To maximize efficiency, such teams would rely on high cognitive trust and low task conflict. Nonetheless, the guidelines for being effective centre around high cognitive trust coupled with low task and relationship conflict.

Task Conflict, Narcissism and Entrepreneurial Capability in Teams Planning a Business: A Moderated Moderation Approach to Explaining Business Planning Performance

“…Especially when examining psychological phenomena (such as personality and conflict processes), students can constitute an acceptable sample, as it can be assumed that these psychological phenomena are fundamental to all human beings, suggesting that the characteristics of and results from this sample would not differ markedly from a sample of the general population (see Welpe et al for comparable logic). Supporting this assumption, the average level of task conflict reported by the entrepreneurship students in this study, for example, is in line with levels of task conflict reported in real‐life teams in studies such as those of Ensley and Hmieleski () and Khan et al () (see Schenkel, Cornwall, and Matthews for a comparable approach of identifying similarities and differences between entrepreneurship students and a broader entrepreneurial population). This is one reason student samples have been used in other top‐tier entrepreneurship research, particularly that with a focus on psychological phenomena (e.g., Bönte, Procher, and Urbig ; Welpe et al ).…”

Trust and team performance: A meta-analysis of main effects, moderators, and covariates.

“…Mixed: Varied greatly across the teams in my sample. Konradt, & Hertel (2006) 0.09 52 0.71 Gilson & Ammeter (2002) 0.48 34 Greer & Caruso (2007) 0.29 42 0.66 1.00 Hempel, Zhang, & Tjosvold (2009) 0.25 102 Hu (2012) 0.35 60 0.65 Joshi, Lazarova, & Liao (2009) 0.33 28 0.72 Kanawattanachai & Yoo (2007) 0.11 38 1.00 1.00 Khan, Breitenecker, Gustafsson, & Schwarz (2015) 0.61 88 1.00 1.00 Kirkman, Rosen, Tesluk, & Gibson (2006) 0.24 36 0.71 Lee, Gillespie, Mann, & Wearing (2010) 0.64 34 Mach & Lvina (2015b) 0.35 73 1.00 Mahoney, Korsgaard, & Pitariu (2012) 0.07 59 0.44 Moshier & Foti (2012) 0.10 36 0.60 Olson, Bao, Parayitam (2007) 0.40 252 Papenhausen (2006) 0.29 35 1.00 Parayitam & Dooley (2007) 0.65 109 Peterson & Behfar (2003) -0.10 67 0.66 Pitts (2010) 0.14 58 1.00 Rau (2005) -0.03 111 0.46 1.00 Rispens, Greer, & Jehn (2007) 0.76 27 0.71 0.62 Sanchez, Olson-Buchanan, Schmidtke, & Bradley (2009) 0.16 63 Small & Rentsch (2010) 0.28 60 0.59 1.00 Stewart & Gosain (2006) 0.10 67 1.00 Talaulicar, Grundei, & Werder (2005) 0.23 56 Webber (2008a) 0.74 31 20100.61 93 1.00 1.00 Groesbeck (2001) 0.71 100 0.69 Hempel, Zhang, & Tjosvold (2009) 0.19 102 Kanawattanachai & Yoo (2002) -0.02 36 1.00 1.00 Khan, Breitenecker, Gustafsson, & Schwarz (2015) 0.46 88 1.00 1.00 Lee, Gillespie, Mann, & Wearing (2010) 0.40 34 Mach & Lvina (2015b) 0.18 73 1.00 Olson, Bao, Parayitam (2007) 0.45 252 Parayitam & Dooley (2007) 0.15 109 Pitts (2010) -0.08 58 1.00…”

Exploring the Role of Entrepreneurial Team Characteristics on Entrepreneurial Orientation

“…These help us to predict higher EO when the functional diversity of entrepreneurial team is high (Smart & Conant, 1994). Recent publications have reported that the role of diversity in an entrepreneurial team may have positive impacts on performance with the logic of entrepreneurial team diversity (Khan, Breitenecker, Gustafsson, & Schwarz, 2015;. Based on these ideas, the overall EO can be higher with higher functional diversity in entrepreneurial team.…”

“…As the entrepreneurial outcomes are, more or less, attributable to the developed value by founders and team members' mutual expectations through entrepreneurial process, other scholars addressed the issue of cultural characteristics among team members such as shared value and trust (Khan, Breitenecker, Gustafsson, & Schwarz, 2015).…”