Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2015

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Entrepreneurship

Degree Program

Entrepreneurship, PhD

Committee Chair

Fiet, James

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Kerrick, Sharon

Committee Member

Kerrick, Sharon

Committee Member

Garrett, Robert

Committee Member

Aldrich, Howard

Author's Keywords

entrepreneurship; new venture teams; cofounders; time; temporal perceptions; environmental hostility; cofounders; polychronicity; allocation of attention; business partnerships

Abstract

The central research question in this dissertation is: how do an individual’s perceptions of time impact a new venture team? Specifically, the study examined whether or not temporal depth relates to how reactive entrepreneurs may be to the environmental changes and threats that they face in their new venture team. I interviewed two cofounders from 40 new venture teams. The results suggest that cofounders in the same new venture team have very different perceptions of time. Their agreement, or congruence of temporal depth (future, past, and total) impacts their new venture team’s perception regarding environmental hostility. This relationship is negatively moderated by polychronicity (the extent to which people prefer to be engaged in two or more tasks or events at the same time). This study provides early evidence of possible reasons why cofounders may eventually see threats and changes for the same business differently. Results and implications for research are discussed.

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