Volitional competencies and behavioral dynamics of early-stage youth new venture teams: crossing the entrepreneurial Rubicon

Purpose Volitional competencies, specifically self-regulation and self-control, are recognized as critical during the early stages of new venture creation, when New Venture Teams (NVTs) actively engage in business formation. Similarly, behavioral dynamics such as team collaboration and cohesion also play a crucial role in business venture creation. Yet, the specific individual volitional competencies and their relationship to the behavioral dynamics within youth NVTs remain underexplored. The purpose of this paper is to explore these volitional competencies and behavioral dynamics after NVTs cross the entrepreneurial Rubicon. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative data was collected on a sample of 515 South African early-stage youth team members regarding seven self-regulation and five self-control volitional competencies and team collaboration and cohesion as the behavioral dynamics. These youth NVTs have crossed the entrepreneurial Rubicon stage, as they created new businesses and are owners/founders of these businesses. Findings Drawing on the Mindset theory of action phases and the self-regulation theory, this study empirically tested the correlational relationship through structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that the self-regulation volitional competencies, particularly attention focusing, self-motivation, emotion regulation, decision regulation and self-determination, as well as the self-control volitional competencies, planning skill and initiating control, significantly influence team collaboration and cohesion. This study challenges the distinction between collaboration and cohesion and combines them as a single construct. Originality/value This study presents a novel theoretical framework that supports eight volitional competencies and two behavioral dynamics that are particularly necessary for early-stage youth NVTs to create new ventures. The findings could contribute to new theoretical construct development, policy formulation, measuring instruments and training programme design.