Abstract
Even though many new ventures are started by teams, we know surprisingly little about how members in these teams work together. In this paper we therefore develop a definition of new venture teams and we propose a research agenda for theorizing entrepreneurship as teamwork. Our definition emphasizes the systemic and contextual properties of new venture teams. We explain why their success is dependent on the quality of team members interactions – a quality that is endogenous to the process itself – and we detail the social and economic conditions that makes new venture teams function differently from other professional teams. On the basis of this definition, we outline a research agenda that shifts the focus of analysis in new venture team’s research. From a matter of team composition, to a study of emergence and tipping points in the process of new venture creation. In all, we hope to further entrepreneurship theory and practice by specifying how new venture teams organize new ventures.