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SAGE Open Special Issue Call for Papers:

Entrepreneurial Teams: Towards a Contextualized Understanding

Guest Editor

Mohammad Saud Khan, Ph.D., University of Southern Denmark

Background

There is considerable consensus that a large number of startups are managed, lead or started by more than one person (Wright and Vanaelst, 2009; Klotz et al., 2014; Khan et al., 2015). Research on team entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial teams, founding teams and new venture teams has gained momentum in the past decade with three special issues dedicated to the field (see Cooney, 2005; Schjoedt & Kraus, 2009; Schjoedt et al., 2013).  While taking stock of this research, some clear thematic discussions emerge. The first and foremost is a definitional aspect of what constitutes an entrepreneurial team, which currently enjoys little consensus. Another vital however less addressed aspect is the work done on how such teams are formed (Ben-Hafaïedh, 2012), their relevant team emergent states and longitudinal performance.  Developing insights into the topic, there have been calls to use varied frameworks from strategic management and organizational behavior perspectives. These frameworks (among others) include the "Input-Process-Output (IPO)", the "Upper Echelon Perspective" from top management team (TMT) literature and the "Input-Mediator-Output (IMO)". While these avenues clearly paved way for a body of knowledge, it is evident that team research within entrepreneurship can gain from more unique insights. In other words, for research to provide meaningful advice to entrepreneurial teams, necessitates a profound appreciation of their setting.

The entrepreneurial phenomenon is regarded as being highly contextual (Autio et al., 2014; Zahra et al., 2014). Revitalizing entrepreneurship research from a contextual frame seems aptly justified to discern the who, why, how and when of entrepreneurship.  Dovetailing to the team scenario, a nuance contextual view could help uncover insightful understandings and alternative explanations on collective opportunity creation/discovery. Context is quite generally explained as any aspect or situation outside the focal point of interest. This highlights the call to understand entrepreneurial teams in a holistic manner to identify factors which promote and hamper their shared development. Context can have an influence and also be influenced by an entrepreneurial activity, thereby making it a multi-level and bi-directional interaction within entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011). This feature makes a contribution within a team setting even more rewarding, where the presence of more than one entrepreneur brings an additional dimension.

Special Issue Goals

This special issue seeks to advance our knowledge on how a contextual interpretation can contribute to a greater understanding of entrepreneurial teams. In this regard, submissions from all management disciplines (entrepreneurship, innovation management, strategy, organizational behavior/psychology, psychology, economics, sociology etc.) are welcome to shape the discussion. Furthermore, as context itself is multifaceted, authors are welcome to conceptualize it in a wide variety of ways; for e.g. as an independent/dependent, process, outcome variable etc. The special issue is open to novel methodologies in addition to theoretical (review, conceptual) and empirical (qualitative, quantitative) manuscripts. Through this call, the goal is to delve deeper into the context and enhance our knowledge on the word "entrepreneurial" within entrepreneurial teams.

Motivating topics include, but are not limited to:

• Entrepreneurial teams in different countries/regions/localities. Possible comparative studies.
• Team entrepreneurship within varied markets and industries.
• Entrepreneurial Teams and cultural facets.
• Role of economic and regulatory infrastructures on entrepreneurial team dynamics.
• Political and institutional setting and its impact on team entrepreneurship.
• Geographical distribution and virtual nature of entrepreneurial teams.
• Teams of different entrepreneurial nature/composition for e.g. family business, high-tech, social, female.
• Role of time (e.g. sequencing of events) as a contextual factor in explaining entrepreneurial teamwork. 
• Contextual moderator/mediator models.
• Multi/Cross level relations of a combination of factors mentioned above.

Timeframe

All submissions will be handled through SAGE Open's peer-review website at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sageopen until 15 February, 2016.  If you do not already have an account you will be asked to create one in order to submit. Please make sure to indicate that your submission is for the special issue on "Entrepreneurial Teams" by using the appropriate manuscript type during the submission process. All special issue submissions should adhere to the SAGE Open Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Further Information

If you would like to discuss your submission or have any questions related to the contents of the special issue, please contact the Guest Editor: Dr. Mohammad Saud Khan – saka@sam.sdu.dk, Mohammadsaud19@gmail.com

For questions regarding the submission process of the special issue please contact The SAGE Open Editorial Office: sageopen@sagepub.com.

SAGE Open is a peer-reviewed open-access publication from SAGE Publications that launched in 2011. Articles span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities.  I encourage you to visit http://www.sageopen.com to learn more about the journal and view the submission guidelines.

Please note that SAGE Open accomplishes global open access (i.e., free, subscription-less access) by using a business model in which its expenses are recovered by an author publication fee charged after acceptance. Please visit http://www.sageopen.com for more information, including a full list of Frequently Asked Questions.