Strategizing the IT Entrepreneurial Teams: A Dynamic Equilibrium Perspective

We conducted a multiple case study on six IT entrepreneurial firms to examine and compare their differences. Results show that as they evolve from emergence stage to early growth stage, they encounter misalignments between venture strategies and entrepreneurial teams’ social capital configurations, prompting adjustments to achieve dynamic equilibriums. Differentiating between IT product and IT service entrepreneurial firms, we found that IT product entrepreneurial firms switch their team management strategy from Interests Alignment to a combination of Diversifying Expansion, Functional Specialization, Cognition Unification and Competition Promotion when their venture strategy changes from product R&D at the emergence stage to market expansion at the early growth stage. Conversely, IT service entrepreneurial firms switch from the combination of Diversifying Expansion, Cognition Unification and Competition Promotion to Interests Alignment when their venture strategy evolves from market expansion at emergence stage to service R&D at the early growth stage. Important theoretical and practical implications are drawn.