TMT Heterogeneity and Strategic Learning: the Moderating Role of Receptiveness to Opposing Views

Despite the well-recognized impact of a firms’ strategic learning capability to enhance beneficial firm outcomes, studies on drivers and contexts that enable firms to develop such a capability remain scare. This study proposes that a ventures top management team (TMT) heterogeneity is positively associated with a firms’ strategic learning capability. Results from 188 founders of new ventures indicate that the heterogenous perspectives, backgrounds and experiences of TMT members enhance a firms’ strategic learning capability. This result contributes to and connects two distinct research streams, namely strategic learning and entrepreneurship literature by stressing the importance of team composition to enhance strategic learning in new ventures. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the effect of TMT heterogeneity on strategic learning capability is moderated by the founders’ receptiveness to opposing views (RTOV). This moderating effect suggests that the founders’ openness towards opposing views, which are mirrored in the heterogenous perspectives of the TMT, strengthens the association between TMT heterogeneity and strategic learning capability. Since RTOV can be learned, practical and theoretical implications are drawn.