Are we really a good match? A multilevel model of relational uncertainty in entrepreneurial teams

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Nicola Breugst
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315285228

Firms are often founded and run by entrepreneurial teams. The members of these teams need to build up productive work relationships, although these emerging relationships can involve substantial uncertainty for entrepreneurs. While work in family psychology suggests that relational uncertainty, i.e. doubts about the quality of the social relationships, plays a crucial role for the formation and development of close relationships, this source of uncertainty has hardly received any attention in professional contexts. Entrepreneurial team members are likely to be prone to the impact of relational uncertainty because of their interdependence, but this impact can be expected to differ from familial contexts. This proposal aims at understanding the role of relational uncertainty in entrepreneurial teams and develops a multilevel model focusing on two crucial phases: (1) the selection of an entrepreneurial team member and (2) the development of entrepreneurial team processes and emergent states. Both subprojects rely on a multimethod approach. To understand the role of relational uncertainty in team member selection, the first subproject combines a multiple case study approach and a conjoint analysis. The second subproject analyzes the impact of relational uncertainty on entrepreneurial team processes and emergent states and, in turn, venture outcomes by integrating a multi case study approach and a longitudinal survey study. The proposal provides important contributions advancing research on entrepreneurial teams, the entrepreneurial process, and uncertainty. First, it uncovers a crucial, but so far neglected, challenge for entrepreneurial teams. The analysis of relational uncertainty provides a better understanding of entrepreneurial outcomes and has the potential to improve the design of interventions in the entrepreneurial process. Second, work on entrepreneurial team formation is limited and one-sidedly claims either an entrepreneur's purely rational or a purely irrational approach in the selection of team members. Taking into account the team members' assessments of their potential team relationships reconciles these perspectives providing more accurate insights into the composition of entrepreneurial teams. Consequently, this entails important implications for the development of young firms. Third, the proposed project challenges the negative view on uncertainty in uncertainty reduction theory by highlighting positive consequences of relational uncertainty in an entrepreneurial context for team processes and emergent states. It will also link team processes and states to venture outcomes providing important insights how entrepreneurial team members' perception of the team relationships can shape their firm.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants