Abstract

Background

Even though the topic of shared leadership has been thoroughly investigated throughout recent years in research, limited literature has focused on this process in the context of new ventures. Moreover, to the knowledge of the authors of this paper, no previous literature has explored how shared leadership evolves as new ventures go through the different phases of the entrepreneurial process, and new members join the team.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the functioning and practice of shared leadership within new venture teams, and to explore if, how and why shared leadership evolves throughout the life cycle of new ventures as the size of the entrepreneurial team changes.

Method

This study adopted a qualitative approach. A total of nine semi-structured interviews (six co-founders from different new ventures and three new employees) were conducted and transcribed. The collected data was analyzed using template analysis, presented in the empirical findings, discussed in relation to the frame of reference in the discussion, and finally summarized in the conclusion.

Conclusion

Shared leadership continues to be essential throughout all of the phases of the entrepreneurial process. In the ideation phase, shared leadership is necessary as the different co-founders have different skills and experiences, and different individuals took charge at different times based on their expertise. Shared leadership continued to be essential in the start-up phase as new employees were hired to fill the knowledge-gaps in the new ventures. As the size of the new ventures was still rather small, it was still possible to involve most of the employees in the decision-making. As the size of the new ventures increased and they reached the growth phase, organizational restructuring was necessary and shared leadership was exercised in a different manner. A management team utilized shared leadership to take over-all decisions, the members of the management teams oversaw functional teams, and in those functional teams, shared leadership was utilized.