Team member commitments and start-up competitiveness

This study uses resources-base and social capital theories to examine the influences of trust and entrepreneur resources on team member commitments and start-up competitiveness during both the initial and growth stages, and then explores the influences of resources and competitiveness of the initial stage on the growth stage. Empirical results support the following conclusions. In both stages, competitiveness positively associates with the start-up team member commitments; Instead of the entrepreneur or firm resources, what affects team members commitments to the start-up is the team members' trust on the entrepreneurs; Entrepreneur resources and start-up competitiveness accumulate across stages, and competitiveness in the initial stage positively influences new team members commitments in the growth stage. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.