Polychronicity in New Technological Venture Teams: The Influence of Founder-CEOs’ Tertius Iungens Orientation and the Implications for Venture Growth

Team polychronicity, or a team's preference to engage in multiple events simultaneously, in new ventures has attracted increasing research attention. However, research on the antecedents that cultivate the polychronicity of new venture teams (NVTs) and the boundary conditions under which NVT polychronicity influences new ventures’ outcomes has remained underdeveloped both theoretically and empirically. Delving into new technological ventures, we address these issues by developing and testing a model in which founder-CEOs’ tertius iungens orientation (TIO) is suggested as an antecedent and new technological venture growth as an outcome of NVT polychronicity, particularly in industries with abundant growth opportunities. The findings based on founder-CEOs and NVT members from 79 new technological ventures lend support to our arguments and offer theoretical insights to the research of NVT management.