How gender configurations and team processes characterize successful entrepreneurial teams

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the combined effect of gender, trust, leadership style and team integration on entrepreneurial team performance. Through an integrated analysis of gender composition and team processes, we enhance the understanding of the drivers of new venture teams’ performance. Design/methodology/approach We use data collected from multi-player startup simulations involving 52 teams of masters-level students across two countries. We used the fsQCA methodology to perform a configurational analysis of different team composition and processes. This innovative application of the methodology allows us to identify new combinations of gender diversity and team processes that improve team performance. Findings Teams with higher proportions of women who shared leadership were more profitable in several configurations, demonstrating the importance of the relationship between gender and leadership models on performance. Shared leadership resulted in high levels of trust and sense of control, which increased team effectiveness and performance. We found that combining trust with shared leadership consistently resulted in successful positive outcomes, although not all successful teams included these attributes. Originality/value Our findings contribute to renewing the frame of research on new venture team performance that has long revolved around the leadership-cohesion-alignment (LCA) triangle. Although the LCA paradigm certainly improved our understanding of new venture success, it provided only a partial understanding of the organizational and relational context. It offered a restricted view of the sources of cohesion and alignment. We believe that our approach to data analysis based on the fsQCA method allowed us to extend our understanding of the determinants of entrepreneurial team performance.