Entrepreneurial team diversity and start-up growth in consulting and hospitality

ABSTRACT

This study examines how human capital diversity in entrepreneurial teams relates to new venture growth in two distinct service industries: hospitality and knowledge-based consultancy. Drawing on longitudinal linked employer-employee data from Portugal, we use large representative samples of start-ups founded and managed by entrepreneurial dyads to identify configurations of team members’ human capital resources linked to high venture growth. We find that high-growth entrepreneurial dyads are strongly homogeneous in hospitality but rather more diverse in knowledge-based consulting. We propose that differences in successful entrepreneurial teams across these sectors are likely associated with industry context concerning human capital requirements and environmental uncertainty: while team homogeneity succeeds in the relatively stable environment of hospitality services, volatility in knowledge-based consulting favors greater diversity.

本研究探讨了创业团队中的人力资本多样性如何与两个不同服务行业的新风险增长相关：酒店和基于知识的咨询。利用来自葡萄牙的纵向关联的雇主-雇员数据，我们使用由企业家二元组创立和管理的初创企业的大型代表性样本来确定与高风险增长相关的团队成员的人力资本资源配置。我们发现，高增长的创业二元在酒店服务方面具有很强的同质性，但在基于知识的咨询方面则更加多样化。我们认为，这些部门成功创业团队的差异可能与人力资本要求和环境不确定性有关的行业背景有关：虽然团队同质化在相对稳定的酒店服务环境中取得成功，但基于知识的咨询的波动性有利于更大的多样性。

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurial teams
• human capital
• diversity
• knowledge-based consultancy
• hospitality services

关键词:

• 创业团队
• 人力资本
• 多样性
• 基于知识的咨询
• 款待服务

Acknowledgements

We thank Jolanda Hessels, Miguel Torres Preto and João Leitão for comments on earlier versions of this paper. We are indebted to the Portuguese Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity and to Statistics Portugal for allowing us access to the data used in this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Our study assesses performance based on sales growth rather than survival, as many start-ups may survive in for a long time while experiencing minor growth, contributing little to economic development (Mogos et al., 2021).

2 QP micro-data discriminates the hierarchy in the firm according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) of the International Labor Union (see: https://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/).

3 Our definition of ‘knowledge-based consulting services’ corresponds to the definition of Other Business Services adopted by the OECD, Eurostat, IMF, and WTO: research and development services, professional and management consulting services and technical, trade-related and other business services (United Nations, 2011; see also Eurostat, 2008).

4 Data on the hospitality and knowledge-based consulting sectors was obtained from Statistics Portugal. (https://www.ine.pt/).

5 According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) reported by firms in QP.

6 Between 2009 and 2013 Portuguese GDP decreased by about 7.9% while hospitality exports increased by about 15.8%. (Source: Statistics Portugal, https://www.ine.pt/).

Additional information

Funding

Rui Baptista and António Sérgio Ribeiro gratefully acknowledge support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through grant PDTC/EGE-OGE/31152/2017.