Cristina Rossi (Politecnico di Milano)

“How the characteristics of entrepreneurial teams shape founders’ exit path: an empirical analysis of the Italian case”

(at Dipartimento di Economia “S. Cognetti de Martiis”)

abstract

This paper examines founders’ exit from entrepreneurial ventures. Specifically, we investigate the influence of the entrepreneurial team on two different exit paths, namely sale of firm shares to internal buyers and sale to external buyers. To do so, we develop hypotheses on the impact of a series of team characteristics on the relative likelihood of the two exit paths. The hypotheses are then tested through econometric estimates on a sample composed of founders of Italian high-tech entrepreneurial ventures. Our results indicate that the characteristics of the entrepreneurial team do influence the exit path. The relative likelihood of sale to internal buyers with respect to sale to external buyers is greater the larger the size of the entrepreneurial team, the greater the age and gender homogeneity of the team and when a single family owns at least 50% of firm shares.