Strategic decision making in start-ups: the effect of top management team organization and processes on speed and comprehensiveness

Abstract

Technology-based start-ups operate in high-velocity environments that make considerable demands on the comprehensiveness and speed of strategic choices. This study argues that characteristics of top management team (TMT) organization as well as TMT processes, namely, debate and trust, significantly influence the comprehensiveness and speed of strategic decision making in start-ups. Hypotheses are theoretically developed and tested with data from an empirical investigation of German start-ups.