‘Who Knows What?’ in New Venture Teams: Transactive Memory Systems as a Micro‐Foundation of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The increasing importance of entrepreneurial behaviour has led scholars to embrace the idea that an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an important predictor of firm performance. While EO occupies a central position in strategic entrepreneurship research, scholars have yet to explore its origins in new ventures. Drawing on the knowledge-based and cognitive views, we theorize that a new venture team's transactive memory system is a cognitive mechanism that spurs the development of an EO. In a field study of high-tech new ventures in China, we examined the relationship between venture teams' transactive memory systems (representing the distribution, integration, and utilization of the teams' knowledge) and EO and the moderating influence of team-, firm-, and environment-level factors. We found that the transactive memory system of a new venture team enhanced their EO and that this relationship was positively influenced by intra-team trust, the structural organicity of a venture, and environmental dynamism. Our findings provide novel insights into the micro-foundations of TMS in developing an EO in new ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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