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  5. Early Teams: The Impact of Team Demography on VC Financing and Going Public

Early Teams: The Impact of Team Demography on VC Financing and Going Public

File(s)
Burton3_Early_Teams.pdf (2.09 MB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/75491
Collections
Faculty Publications - Human Resource Studies
ILR Articles and Chapters
Author
Beckman, Christine M.
Burton, M. Diane
O'Reilly, Charles
Abstract

This study investigates how top management team (TMT) demographic characteristics affect firm outcomes for young high technology firms in Silicon Valley. We study how team composition and turnover shape an entrepreneurial firm’s ability to attract venture capital and its ability to successfully complete an initial public offering. We find that broad access to information by virtue of having top management team members that have worked for many different employers (diverse prior company affiliations) and have diverse prior experiences (functional diversity) tend to be associated with positive outcomes. In addition, entrants to and founder exits from the TMT increase the likelihood that a firm achieves an IPO. TMT exits, in turn, reduce the likelihood of achieving an IPO. Results also suggest that prior human capital experience is consistently associated with positive firm outcomes. These findings suggest that team experiences, composition and turnover are all important for bringing new insights to the firm and are associated with the likelihood that an entrepreneurial firm will succeed.

Date Issued
2007-01-01
Keywords
top management teams
•
demography
•
functional diversity
•
turnover
Related DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2006.02.001
Rights
Required Publisher Statement: Copyright by Elsevier Science. Final paper published as Beckman, C. M., Burton, M. D. & O’Reilly, C. (2007). Early teams: The impact of team demography on VC financing and going public. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(2), 147-173.
Type
article

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