Smells like team spirit: how founder team composition and entrepreneurship motivation affect start-up value added

This study investigates the relationship between new venture team composition and start-up performance, measured as value added. We consecutively introduce the level and heterogeneity of team industry experience, intrinsic and extrinsic entrepreneurship motivation as potential drivers of venture value added. Using a sample of 66 teams representing 142 business founders, we observe that a team's level of industry experience and extrinsic entrepreneurship motivation significantly contribute to start-up value added, whereas intrinsic entrepreneurship motivation exhibits a negative association with value added. Additionally, our findings reveal that teams with high industry experience exert a stronger influence on start-up value added when the team's experience heterogeneity is high, whereas teams with low experience benefit from low experience heterogeneity.There appears to be no significant impact of a team's motivation heterogeneity on start-up value added.status: publishe