Learning and experimentation throughout the pre-entry phase of the entrepreneurial processes

This preliminary study investigates the pre-market-entry phase of entrepreneurship, exploring how team size and composition, in particular the heterogeneity of team members’ work experience and field of education, are associated with the gestation activities performed by entrepreneurial teams. We measure these activities by the number of steps teams undertake to validate their entrepreneurial ideas. Analyzing participants’ data collected from the application forms of three different editions of an Italian startup business plan competition, we examine the relationship between these steps and team heterogeneity. We also examine how the interaction between team size and heterogeneity correlates with the number of steps. The findings suggest that larger teams with higher diversity in their educational backgrounds engage in more entrepreneurial steps, while work experience is weakly associated with entrepreneurial steps. These insights contribute to research on entrepreneurial learning and team dynamics, highlighting the importance of a detailed examination of how team characteristics shape entrepreneurs’ actions during the initial stages of the venture-building process.