Founder team interaction, customer and competitor orientation in software ventures

Abstract

Purpose

Developments in the software industry have shown the need for sustainable and effective management strategies, especially for new ventures. Entrepreneurship literature suggests marketing to be one of the pivotal predictors of business performance. Previous empirical studies have shown the importance of social interaction and team work quality for new venture performance. The purpose of this paper is to apply founder team interaction quality (IQ), and the customer and competitor orientation concept of marketing research to new software venture performance.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical study using a fully standardized questionnaire was conducted in 101 young software ventures. Two founders in each company filled out the questionnaire separately allowing superior tests for reliability and validity of the research framework.

Findings

The results show team IQ to be a powerful predictor of both customer orientation and competitor orientation. Furthermore, a positive, linear relationship between competitor orientation and technological performance has been found. There is a curvilinear U‐shaped relationship between customer orientation and all examined success dimensions, i.e. economic, market and technological success.

Originality/value

Based on a theoretical research framework and a comprehensive empirical study, the paper contributes to a limited body of research and provides insight for managers of young ventures in the nature of teamwork and IQ and its effects on market orientation and company performance.

Citation

Mueller, T.A. and Georg Gemünden, H. (2009), "Founder team interaction, customer and competitor orientation in software ventures", Management Research News, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 539-554. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170910962975