Significant Events and Their Impact on New Venture Teams

Significant events represent essential shifts in the new venture's development. These events may increase, decrease, or have no effect on team members' cognitions, decisions, and behaviors. Although this is a distinct possibility, research has yet to fully elucidate the specific impacts on new venture team members following significant events. To address this gap, we adapt Event System Theory to the new venture context to develop a theory of significant events and their effects on team members' cognition and behavior. The theory describes how significant events first capture members' attention and then undergo a distinctive psychological interpretation, which affects cognitive and behavioral outcomes, such as leaving the team. By describing the processes that precede and follow significant events, our theory provides a needed explanation of how events may change team members' engagement with their teams or lead to their exit. We derive specific propositions.