Strategic Decision Making in Start-Ups : The Effect of Top Management Team Organization and Processes on Speed and Comprehensiveness

The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which the organization and processes (particularly debate and trust) of top management teams (TMTs) influence the speed and comprehensiveness of strategic decision making in startups.Two hypotheses suggest that a departmental model of TMT organization will result in speedy, comprehensive decision making.Two other hypotheses predict that debate, although likely to generate comprehensive decisions, will slow down the process.According to two additional hypotheses, a CEO model of TMT organization will result in quick but sketchy decisions.High levels of trust between TMT members, however, are expected to reduce the negative impact that a CEO model has on the comprehensiveness of decisions. Data from a survey of 56 high-technology startups in Germany are used to evaluate these hypotheses.Although the data support most of the hypotheses, they offer no evidence that establishing either a CEO model or trust among TMT members will decrease the comprehensiveness or accelerate the speed of decision making.Moreover, debate is not shown to decrease the speed of the decision making process, although it certainly generates comprehensive decisions.As a whole, the findings suggest that a departmental model of TMT organization is conducive to a quick, thorough decision making process. (SAA)