Complementing Capital: The Role of Status, Demographic Features, and Social Capital in Founding Teams’ Abilities to Obtain Resources

Abstract

To investigate the extent to which founders can influence their firms, I formulate a framework that considers the interaction between three main facets of founding teams’ backgrounds, namely, industry status, entrepreneurially relevant demographic features, and social capital. As the propositions and illustrations suggest, the presence of one type of capital may reduce the dependence on or need for others. The model has applicability to a variety of industries with uncertain outcomes resulting from the commercialization of early–stage technology (e.g., biotechnology, nanotechnology, software, or hardware) or subjective quality (e.g., restaurants or movies).