Collectiveness within startup teams – Leading the way to initiating and managing collective pursuit of opportunities in organizational contexts
Forsström-Tuominen, Heidi (2015-12-12)
Väitöskirja
Forsström-Tuominen, Heidi
12.12.2015
Lappeenranta University of Technology
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-901-9
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-901-9
Tiivistelmä
While traditional entrepreneurship literature addresses the pursuit of entrepreneurial
opportunities to a solo entrepreneur, scholars increasingly agree that new ventures are often
founded and operated by entrepreneurial teams as collective efforts especially in hightechnology
industries. Researchers also suggest that team ventures are more likely to survive
and succeed than ventures founded by the individual entrepreneur although specific
challenges might relate to multiple individuals being involved in joint entrepreneurial action.
In addition to new ventures, entrepreneurial teams are seen central for organizing work in
established organizations since the teams are able to create major product and service
innovations that drive organizational success.
Acknowledgement of the entrepreneurial teams in various organizational contexts has
challenged the notion on the individual entrepreneur. However, considering that
entrepreneurial teams represent a collective-level phenomenon that bases on interactions
between organizational members, entrepreneurial teams may not have been studied as indepth
as could be expected from the point of view of the team-level, rather than the individual
or the individuals in the team. Many entrepreneurial team studies adopt the individualized
view of entrepreneurship and examine the team members’ aggregate characteristics or the role
of a lead entrepreneur. The previous understandings might not offer a comprehensive and indepth
enough understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams and team venture
performance that often relates to the team-level issues in particular. In addition, as the
collective-level of entrepreneurial teams has been approached in various ways in the existing
literatures, the phenomenon has been difficult to understand in research and practice. Hence,
there is a need to understand entrepreneurial teams at the collective-level through a systematic
and comprehensive perspective.
This study takes part in the discussions on entrepreneurial teams. The overall objective of this
study is to offer a description and understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial
teams beyond individual(s). The research questions of the study are: 1) what collectiveness
within entrepreneurial teams stands for, what constitutes the basic elements of it, and who are
included in it, 2) why, how, and when collectiveness emerges or reinforces within
entrepreneurial teams, and 3) why collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams matters and
how it could be developed or supported.
In order to answer the above questions, this study bases on three approaches, two set of
empirical data, two analysis techniques, and conceptual study. The first data set consists of 12 qualitative semi-structured interviews with business school students who are seen as
prospective entrepreneurs. The data is approached through a social constructionist perspective
and analyzed through discourse analysis. The second data set bases on a qualitative multiplecase
study approach that aims at theory elaboration. The main data consists of 14 individual
and four group semi-structured thematic interviews with members of core entrepreneurial
teams of four team startups in high-technology industries. The secondary data includes
publicly available documents. This data set is approached through a critical realist perspective
and analyzed through systematic thematic analysis. The study is completed through a
conceptual study that aims at building a theoretical model of collective-level entrepreneurship
drawing from existing literatures on organizational theory and social-psychology. The
theoretical work applies a positivist perspective.
This study consists of two parts. The first part includes an overview that introduces the
research background, knowledge gaps and objectives, research strategy, and key concepts. It
also outlines the existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature, presents and justifies
the choices of paradigms and methods, summarizes the publications, and synthesizes the
findings through answering the above mentioned research questions. The second part consists
of five publications that address independent research questions but all enable to answer the
research questions set for this study as a whole.
The findings of this study suggest a map of relevant concepts and their relationships that help
grasp collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams. The analyses conducted in the publications
suggest that collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams stands for cognitive and affective
structures in-between team members including elements of collective entity, collective idea of
business, collective effort, collective attitudes and motivations, and collective feelings.
Collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams also stands for specific joint entrepreneurial
action components in which the structures are constructed. The action components reflect
equality and democracy, and open and direct communication in particular. Collectiveness
emerges because it is a powerful tool for overcoming individualized barriers to
entrepreneurship and due to collectively oriented desire for, collective value orientation to,
demand for, and encouragement to team entrepreneurship. Collectiveness emerges and
reinforces in processes of joint creation and realization of entrepreneurial opportunities
including joint analysis and planning of the opportunities and strategies, decision-making and
realization of the opportunities, and evaluation, feedback, and sanctions of entrepreneurial
action. Collectiveness matters because it is relevant for potential future entrepreneurs and
because it affects the ways collective ventures are initiated and managed. Collectiveness also
matters because it is a versatile, dynamic, and malleable phenomenon and the ideas of it can
be applied across organizational contexts that require team work in discovering or creating
and realizing new opportunities. This study further discusses how the findings add to the
existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature and how the ideas can be applied in
educational, managerial, and policy contexts.
opportunities to a solo entrepreneur, scholars increasingly agree that new ventures are often
founded and operated by entrepreneurial teams as collective efforts especially in hightechnology
industries. Researchers also suggest that team ventures are more likely to survive
and succeed than ventures founded by the individual entrepreneur although specific
challenges might relate to multiple individuals being involved in joint entrepreneurial action.
In addition to new ventures, entrepreneurial teams are seen central for organizing work in
established organizations since the teams are able to create major product and service
innovations that drive organizational success.
Acknowledgement of the entrepreneurial teams in various organizational contexts has
challenged the notion on the individual entrepreneur. However, considering that
entrepreneurial teams represent a collective-level phenomenon that bases on interactions
between organizational members, entrepreneurial teams may not have been studied as indepth
as could be expected from the point of view of the team-level, rather than the individual
or the individuals in the team. Many entrepreneurial team studies adopt the individualized
view of entrepreneurship and examine the team members’ aggregate characteristics or the role
of a lead entrepreneur. The previous understandings might not offer a comprehensive and indepth
enough understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams and team venture
performance that often relates to the team-level issues in particular. In addition, as the
collective-level of entrepreneurial teams has been approached in various ways in the existing
literatures, the phenomenon has been difficult to understand in research and practice. Hence,
there is a need to understand entrepreneurial teams at the collective-level through a systematic
and comprehensive perspective.
This study takes part in the discussions on entrepreneurial teams. The overall objective of this
study is to offer a description and understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial
teams beyond individual(s). The research questions of the study are: 1) what collectiveness
within entrepreneurial teams stands for, what constitutes the basic elements of it, and who are
included in it, 2) why, how, and when collectiveness emerges or reinforces within
entrepreneurial teams, and 3) why collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams matters and
how it could be developed or supported.
In order to answer the above questions, this study bases on three approaches, two set of
empirical data, two analysis techniques, and conceptual study. The first data set consists of 12 qualitative semi-structured interviews with business school students who are seen as
prospective entrepreneurs. The data is approached through a social constructionist perspective
and analyzed through discourse analysis. The second data set bases on a qualitative multiplecase
study approach that aims at theory elaboration. The main data consists of 14 individual
and four group semi-structured thematic interviews with members of core entrepreneurial
teams of four team startups in high-technology industries. The secondary data includes
publicly available documents. This data set is approached through a critical realist perspective
and analyzed through systematic thematic analysis. The study is completed through a
conceptual study that aims at building a theoretical model of collective-level entrepreneurship
drawing from existing literatures on organizational theory and social-psychology. The
theoretical work applies a positivist perspective.
This study consists of two parts. The first part includes an overview that introduces the
research background, knowledge gaps and objectives, research strategy, and key concepts. It
also outlines the existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature, presents and justifies
the choices of paradigms and methods, summarizes the publications, and synthesizes the
findings through answering the above mentioned research questions. The second part consists
of five publications that address independent research questions but all enable to answer the
research questions set for this study as a whole.
The findings of this study suggest a map of relevant concepts and their relationships that help
grasp collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams. The analyses conducted in the publications
suggest that collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams stands for cognitive and affective
structures in-between team members including elements of collective entity, collective idea of
business, collective effort, collective attitudes and motivations, and collective feelings.
Collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams also stands for specific joint entrepreneurial
action components in which the structures are constructed. The action components reflect
equality and democracy, and open and direct communication in particular. Collectiveness
emerges because it is a powerful tool for overcoming individualized barriers to
entrepreneurship and due to collectively oriented desire for, collective value orientation to,
demand for, and encouragement to team entrepreneurship. Collectiveness emerges and
reinforces in processes of joint creation and realization of entrepreneurial opportunities
including joint analysis and planning of the opportunities and strategies, decision-making and
realization of the opportunities, and evaluation, feedback, and sanctions of entrepreneurial
action. Collectiveness matters because it is relevant for potential future entrepreneurs and
because it affects the ways collective ventures are initiated and managed. Collectiveness also
matters because it is a versatile, dynamic, and malleable phenomenon and the ideas of it can
be applied across organizational contexts that require team work in discovering or creating
and realizing new opportunities. This study further discusses how the findings add to the
existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature and how the ideas can be applied in
educational, managerial, and policy contexts.
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