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From Common Ground To Breaking New Ground: Founding Teams' Prior Shared Experience And Start-Up Performance, Florence E. Honore

Florence E. Honore

Start-ups founded by team members with prior shared experience in incumbent firms tend to perform better than other start-ups. While the prior shared experience brings relevant knowledge and coherent routines, the knowledge is also by definition redundant and can corner the new firms in local search and limit innovation. I propose that start-ups may mitigate the negative aspects of shared prior experience by including in the founding team individuals with extensive experience in multiple prior jobs or industries – i.e., job hoppers. I find that job hoppers positively moderate the effect of shared experience on performance. I also find that …