Do others think you have a viable business idea? Team diversity and judges' evaluation of ideas in a business plan competition

Abstract

The study examines how team diversity affects external evaluation of the teams' business ideas. Using an information perspective, we argue that task-related diversity of member characteristics enhance team effectiveness. Nontask diversity hurt team effectiveness by steering teams away from their tasks. Some support was found. Task-related diversity of education level was positively related with evaluation while nontask diversities of age and employment status negatively related with evaluation. The positive relationship of task diversity on evaluations was higher for larger teams. The findings were robust across different functional forms for the demographic factors. Implications of team affects on venture outcomes are discussed.