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Entrepreneurial Teams: Diversity of Skills and Early-Stage Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco D’Acunto
  • Geoffrey Tate
  • Liu Yang

Abstract

We use employer-employee linked data to track the employment histories of team members prior to startup formation for a full cohort of new firms in the U.S. Using pre-startup industry experience to measure skillsets, we find that startups that have founding teams with more diverse collective skillsets grow faster than peer firms in the same industries and local economies. A one standard deviation increase in teams’ skill diversity is associated with an increase in five-year employment (sales) growth of 16% (10%) from the mean. The effects are stronger among startups in innovative industries and among startups facing greater ex-ante uncertainty. Moreover, the results are robust to a variety of approaches to address the endogeneity of team composition. Overall, our results suggest that teams with more diverse collective skillsets adapt their strategies more successfully in the uncertain environments faced by (innovative) startup firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco D’Acunto & Geoffrey Tate & Liu Yang, 2020. "Entrepreneurial Teams: Diversity of Skills and Early-Stage Growth," Working Papers 20-45, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:20-45
    as

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    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2020/CES-WP-20-45.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Growth; Startups; Teams; Diversity; Innovation; Personnel Economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

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