The meeting points of team entrepreneurial passion, transactive memory systems and team performance: examining mediation and necessity effects

Purpose

To support the advancement of an underrepresented category of research in the field of entrepreneurial teams, this study proposes and tests a novel empirical model that connects two team emergent states, namely team entrepreneurial passion (TEP) and transactive memory systems (TMSs), and their influence on team performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were gathered using an online questionnaire distributed to undergraduate students who had formed entrepreneurial teams as part of a course assignment. Two methods were executed on the obtained data, namely partial least-square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA).

Findings

The results uphold the hypothesised mediation role of TMSs between TEP and team performance. Of the two direct relations in the model, only the necessary conditions were present for the effect of TEP on TMSs.

Research limitations/implications

The issue of the small sample size, a common feature in entrepreneurial team research, as discussed in the methodical section of the paper, is sidestepped with the use of PLS-SEM tools. Nonetheless, a larger sample size could have increased confidence in the results' validity. In addition, a longitudinal approach to data collection and analysis could have been used to augment that confidence further.

Practical implications

Three practical implications stem from the empirical findings. First, it lends support for implementing teaching approaches and task designs that are envisaged to improve team functioning in university classrooms. Making a business plan boosts students' desire to exploit the received knowledge and find a venture, so the teaching effort in entrepreneurship courses can have real-world consequences.

Originality/value

By testing the mediation model, new insights are made into the associations between team emerging states and, subsequently, team performance. In addition, this study responds to recent calls in the literature to incorporate NCA in an entrepreneurial setting.