Team Dynamics and Entrepreneurial Team Success: The Mediating Role of Decision Quality

Abstract

Little research on Entrepreneurial Teams (ET) has sought to understand how team processes may influence organizational outcomes. In this paper, we unite upper echelon theory to provide a deeper understanding of which entrepreneurial team dynamics, directly, or indirectly through decision quality, result in entrepreneurial team success. In order to do so, we build upon data collected from 225 entrepreneurial teams from Sfax region. Based on structural equation modeling, the findings demonstrate that shared leadership among entrepreneurial teams indirectly and positively affect ET success, and that decision quality mediates the relationship between ET communication and ET success. Our research contributes to the upper-echelons theory and ET literature by drawing attention to the team dynamics and social interaction between team members, and their implications for entrepreneurial team success.