Anna Brattström, Alan Johnson and Karl Wennberg

Project summary

Group processes in new innovative ventures

The aim of the research project is to generate scientific knowledge about group processes in new, innovative ventures. We seek to understand and explain how group processes affect team dynamics and development in the short term, as well as the new venture’s innovation activities and value creation in the long term.

 

Research has shown that innovative new ventures are central to economic growth and that more than half of these ventures are run by teams of two or more entrepreneurs. Despite this, little is known about group processes in new ventures, as entrepreneurship research has primarily focused on individual entrepreneurs. We work and behave differently in groups than we do alone. Within a group, both our behaviour and the team’s performance are influenced by:

• how the team resolves conflicts and communicates;
• whether its members experience trust and a sense of belonging;
• whether new members join the team and existing members leave.

 

Knowledge about the social, cognitive and behavioural processes within entrepreneurial teams is therefore an important piece of the puzzle in understanding how society can best foster the growth of new innovative ventures.

 

The project advances group and process theories in entrepreneurship research by collecting detailed qualitative and quantitative data over a two-year period and analysing these data using advanced methods. The project also has direct practical relevance for innovation environments and for new ventures founded by entrepreneurial teams in Sweden.