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

• Published in: The Service industries journal Vol. 44; no. 13-14; pp. 1038 - 1060
• Main Authors: Baptista, Rui, Ribeiro, António Sérgio, Batool, Syeda Nimra, Cheng, Cheng-Feng, Kraus, Sascha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 25.10.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: diversity; Entrepreneurial teams; hospitality services; human capital; knowledge-based consultancy; 人力资本; 创业团队; 基于知识的咨询; 多样性; 款待服务
• ISSN: 0264-2069; 1743-9507
• DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2022.2138357

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.