Founder CEO Succession in High Growth Ventures How do entrepreneurs perceive their role as a founder CEO as their companies grow, and what impact does this have on their “decision” to remain in that role?
(2018) ENTN19 20181Department of Business Administration
- Abstract (Swedish)
- In order to grow, the founder must go. This is the conventional wisdom which states that when entrepreneurial firms enter a stage of rapid growth the new business quickly surpasses the skills and capacity of the founder. In this phase of rapid growth this paper aims to understand how entrepreneurs perceive their role as founder CEO as their company grows, and what impact this has on their “decision” to remain in that role. The study reviews previous literature and categorises problems and challenges faced by founder-CEOs into three themes, Transition, Attachment and Motivation. These themes together with personal traits, cognitive models and behavioral decision making lay the foundation for six semi- structured interviews. The purpose of... (More)
- In order to grow, the founder must go. This is the conventional wisdom which states that when entrepreneurial firms enter a stage of rapid growth the new business quickly surpasses the skills and capacity of the founder. In this phase of rapid growth this paper aims to understand how entrepreneurs perceive their role as founder CEO as their company grows, and what impact this has on their “decision” to remain in that role. The study reviews previous literature and categorises problems and challenges faced by founder-CEOs into three themes, Transition, Attachment and Motivation. These themes together with personal traits, cognitive models and behavioral decision making lay the foundation for six semi- structured interviews. The purpose of the study is to take a qualitative approach to a topic that previously has been quantitatively examined. By analysing these issues on a individual level rather than company level this study complements quantitative studies and adopts a human lens to uncover new emerging perspectives and explore topics for future research. It is found that financial and corporate aspirations are not the main factors that drive CEOs when considering their role, but rather more personal drivers, such as learning, interest in the position, and lifestyle come in to whether they themselves want to continue as the company grows. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8955326
- author
- Bark, Buster LU and Forshaw, Charlotte LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- ENTN19 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 8955326
- date added to LUP
- 2018-08-03 16:07:26
- date last changed
- 2018-08-03 16:07:26
@misc{8955326,
abstract = {{In order to grow, the founder must go. This is the conventional wisdom which states that when entrepreneurial firms enter a stage of rapid growth the new business quickly surpasses the skills and capacity of the founder. In this phase of rapid growth this paper aims to understand how entrepreneurs perceive their role as founder CEO as their company grows, and what impact this has on their “decision” to remain in that role. The study reviews previous literature and categorises problems and challenges faced by founder-CEOs into three themes, Transition, Attachment and Motivation. These themes together with personal traits, cognitive models and behavioral decision making lay the foundation for six semi- structured interviews. The purpose of the study is to take a qualitative approach to a topic that previously has been quantitatively examined. By analysing these issues on a individual level rather than company level this study complements quantitative studies and adopts a human lens to uncover new emerging perspectives and explore topics for future research. It is found that financial and corporate aspirations are not the main factors that drive CEOs when considering their role, but rather more personal drivers, such as learning, interest in the position, and lifestyle come in to whether they themselves want to continue as the company grows.}},
author = {{Bark, Buster and Forshaw, Charlotte}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Founder CEO Succession in High Growth Ventures How do entrepreneurs perceive their role as a founder CEO as their companies grow, and what impact does this have on their “decision” to remain in that role?}},
year = {{2018}},
}