Purpose

This paper brings in relevant entrepreneurial behavior theory to understand the ownership decisions founders make during the nascent stage of new venture creation, and how such decisions impact the viability of the firm.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine the behavior and decision making of 137 lead founders during the nascent stage of new venture creation. Psychological ownership and environmental uncertainty are measured of lead founders when dividing up firm ownership among the founding team. Using a longitudinal approach, these nascent-stage decisions are then analyzed to understand the impact on the new venture one year later.

Findings

Counter to prior research suggesting teams are better off with identical wages and ownership, the authors find such harmony (i.e. “kumbaya”) pursuit to be a detriment to new venture emergence. Specifically, this study finds that nascent ventures are better off with an unequal ownership split among the founding team members. These findings suggest that nascent firms with an unequal split are more likely to move beyond the nascent stage and launch a functional business.

Research limitations/implications

Although the results of this study offer a valuable contribution to lead founders and new businesses, the study looked at each startup independent of another and is therefore not able to draw any conclusions related to competitiveness.

Practical implications

Lead founders and founding teams frequently divide ownership evenly among the founders. This paper shows that, while convenient, the decision to divide ownership equally can hamper a nascent firm as it moves toward the launch phase of the startup process. These results should motivate founders to think deeply regarding the ownership structure decision and, at the very least, consider the possible negative costs associated with the pursuit of founding team unity.

Originality/value

While scholars have brought attention to the nascent stage, few have identified and analyzed the decisions that take place during this critical time of the new venture development process. Furthermore, even is less is known of the impact nascent decisions have on startup launch. This study sheds light on these areas.

中文翻译：

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kumbaya 的沉重成本——了解新生风险所有权结构的生存影响

目的

本文引入了相关的创业行为理论，以了解创始人在新企业创建初期所做的所有权决策，以及这些决策如何影响公司的生存能力。

设计/方法/方法

作者研究了 137 位主要创始人在新企业创建初期的行为和决策。在将公司所有权分配给创始团队时，主要创始人的心理所有权和环境不确定性是衡量的。使用纵向方法，然后分析这些新生阶段的决策，以了解一年后对新企业的影响。

发现

与先前的研究表明团队在相同的工资和所有权下会更好，作者发现这种和谐（即“kumbaya”）追求不利于新企业的出现。具体而言，这项研究发现，创始团队成员之间的所有权分配不平等时，新生企业的情况会更好。这些发现表明，分配不均的新生公司更有可能超越新生阶段并开展功能性业务。

研究限制/影响

尽管这项研究的结果为主要创始人和新企业提供了宝贵的贡献，但该研究着眼于每个独立的初创企业，因此无法得出任何与竞争力相关的结论。

实际影响

首席创始人和创始团队经常在创始人之间平均分配所有权。本文表明，虽然很方便，但平均分配所有权的决定可能会阻碍新兴公司进入启动过程的启动阶段。这些结果应该会激励创始人深入思考所有权结构的决定，并且至少要考虑与追求创始团队团结相关的可能的负成本。

原创性/价值

虽然学者们已经将注意力带到了新生阶段，但很少有人确定和分析在新企业发展过程的这个关键时期发生的决策。此外，人们对新生决策对初创公司启动的影响知之甚少。这项研究阐明了这些领域。