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Entrepreneurship and team participation: An experimental study

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  • Cooper, David J.
  • Saral, Krista Jabs
Abstract
Entrepreneurs are surprisingly unlikely to have partners. One possible explanation for this is that entrepreneurs have distinctive preferences for working alone rather than in teams. However, a number of alternative explanations exist, such as an inability to locate suitable partners or low profitability from having a partner. Utilizing a diverse subject population with a high proportion of active entrepreneurs, we use a team production experiment to directly examine whether entrepreneurs prefer to work alone or in a team. The experiment also measures an important determinant of entrepreneurs' performances within teams, and their relative tendency to free-ride. The data indicate that entrepreneurs, while no more likely to free-ride on their teammates, are substantially more interested in working alone than similar non-entrepreneurs.

Suggested Citation

  • Cooper, David J. & Saral, Krista Jabs, 2013. "Entrepreneurship and team participation: An experimental study," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 126-140.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:59:y:2013:i:c:p:126-140
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2013.01.003
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. David J. Cooper & Krista Saral & Marie Claire Villeval, 2021. "Why Join a Team?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(11), pages 6980-6997, November.
    2. Dutcher, E. Glenn & Salmon, Timothy C. & Saral, Krista J., 2015. "Is "Real" Effort More Real?," MPRA Paper 68394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Jérôme Hergueux & Nicolas Jacquemet, 2015. "Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 18(2), pages 251-283, June.
    4. Håkan J. Holm & Victor Nee & Sonja Opper, 2020. "Strategic decisions: behavioral differences between CEOs and others," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(1), pages 154-180, March.
    5. Philip Grossman & Catherine Eckel, 2015. "Loving the long shot: Risk taking with skewed lotteries," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 195-217, December.
    6. Loukas Balafoutas & Mongoljin Batsaikhan & Matthias Sutter, 2021. "Competitiveness of Entrepreneurs and Salaried Workers," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 069, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    7. Thomas Astebro & Holger Herz & Ramana Nanda & Roberto A. Weber, 2014. "Seeking the Roots of Entrepreneurship: Insights from Behavioral Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 49-70, Summer.
    8. Prada-Medina, Laura & Mantilla, Cesar & Cortes, Darwin, 2022. "Procedural preferences for autonomy: an experimental study with Colombian workers," OSF Preprints s7tcb, Center for Open Science.
    9. Brown, Christopher L., 2024. "Team production in endogenous networks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 560-580.
    10. Francesca Melillo, 2023. "Going From Entrepreneur Back to Employee: Employer Type, Task Variety, and Job Satisfaction," GREDEG Working Papers 2023-21, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    11. Dianne H. B. Welsh & Eugene Kaciak & Caroline Minialai, 2017. "The influence of perceived management skills and perceived gender discrimination in launch decisions by women entrepreneurs," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-33, March.
    12. Peter Kuhn & Marie Claire Villeval, 2015. "Are Women More Attracted to Co‐operation Than Men?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(582), pages 115-140, February.
    13. Kaciak, Eugene & Welsh, Dianne H.B., 2020. "Women entrepreneurs and work–life interface: The impact of sustainable economies on success," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 281-290.
    14. Sander Hoogendoorn & Simon C. Parker & Mirjam van Praag, 2017. "Smart or Diverse Start-up Teams? Evidence from a Field Experiment," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 1010-1028, December.
    15. Dianne H. B. Welsh & Eugene Kaciak & Silvana Trimi & Emerson Wagner Mainardes, 2018. "Women Entrepreneurs and Family Firm Heterogeneity: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 445-465, June.
    16. Vanessa Mertins & Wolfgang Hoffeld, 2015. "Do Overconfident Workers Cooperate Less? The Relationship Between Overconfidence and Cooperation in Team Production," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 265-274, June.
    17. Hendrik Hakenes & Svetlana Katolnik, 2018. "Optimal Team Size and Overconfidence," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 665-687, August.
    18. Mongoljin Batsaikhan & Louis Putterman, 2019. "An Honest Day's Pay: Cooperation among Entrepreneurs vs. Students, and Linkages to Real‐World Business Success," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(2), pages 478-502, October.
    19. Iván Arribas & Penélope Hernández & Amparo Urbano Salvador & Jose E. Vila, 2012. "Are social and entrepreneurial attitudes compatible? A behavioral and self-perceptional analysis," Discussion Papers in Economic Behaviour 0512, University of Valencia, ERI-CES.
    20. Simone Haeckl & Rupert Sausgruber & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2018. "Work Motivation and Teams," Discussion Papers 18-08, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    21. Welsh, Dianne H.B. & Kaciak, Eugene & Thongpapanl, Narongsak, 2016. "Influence of stages of economic development on women entrepreneurs' startups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 4933-4940.
    22. Welsh, Dianne H.B. & Kaciak, Eugene & Shamah, Rania, 2018. "Determinants of women entrepreneurs' firm performance in a hostile environment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 481-491.
    23. Sabrina Artinger & Nir Vulkan, 2016. "Does Group Size Matter for Behavior in Online Trust Dilemmas?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-10, November.
    24. Rocha, Vera & van Praag, Mirjam C. & Folta, Timothy B. & Carneiro, Anabela, 2016. "Entrepreneurial Choices of Initial Human Capital Endowments and New Venture Success," IZA Discussion Papers 9919, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. Cooper, David J. & Ioannou, Christos A. & Qi, Shi, 2018. "Endogenous incentive contracts and efficient coordination," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 78-97.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Artefactual field experiment; Entrepreneurship; Teams;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M2 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

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