Founding team and startup competitive advantage

• Published in: International journal of organizational analysis (2005) 2008-07, Vol.16 (1/2), p.138-151
• Main Authors: Wu, LeiYu, Wang, ChunJu, Tseng, ChunYao, Wu, MingCheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business formation; Competitive advantage; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1934-8835
• DOI: 10.1108/19348830810915532

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to link founding team and startup competitive advantage in the context of the Taiwanese technologybased ventures. Designmethodologyapproach The paper analyzes 211 startups of the technologybased sector and verifies the relationship between entrepreneur resources, trust, founding team partners' commitments, and startup competitive advantage. Findings In technologybased startups, the competitive advantage of a startup is determined by the founding team partners' commitments and the resources an entrepreneur has. Research limitationsimplications This study is retrospective which relies on technologybased founding team members as the primary research subjects, some respondents may observe the performance of their startups today and then make attributions about the past to explain that performance. Practical implications Utilizations of personal networks are important in the early stage of technologybased startups through networking and using trust, an entrepreneur can gain the critical resources and competitive advantage required in the development of a business. Originalityvalue In technologybased startups, trust, not the resources an entrepreneur has, is an effective way by which entrepreneurs can win founding team partners' commitments.