Prior studies have highlighted the need and importance of hiring professional executives in driving entrepreneurial growth. However, far less is known about how ventures undergoing scaling can effectively integrate external seasoned executives. Using multi-case inductive research design on 18 conflict events in three high-growth fintech startups in Hong Kong, we found that founders use four behaviors to resolve a conflict between a new executive and incumbent executives who are vertically and horizontally interdependent (i.e., vertical and horizontal conflicts). Each resolution behavior has varying degree of effectiveness in addressing each type of conflict. Our primary theoretical contribution is to internal process of scale-up entrepreneurship. We found hiring new executives c...[ Read more ]

Prior studies have highlighted the need and importance of hiring professional executives in driving entrepreneurial growth. However, far less is known about how ventures undergoing scaling can effectively integrate external seasoned executives. Using multi-case inductive research design on 18 conflict events in three high-growth fintech startups in Hong Kong, we found that founders use four behaviors to resolve a conflict between a new executive and incumbent executives who are vertically and horizontally interdependent (i.e., vertical and horizontal conflicts). Each resolution behavior has varying degree of effectiveness in addressing each type of conflict. Our primary theoretical contribution is to internal process of scale-up entrepreneurship. We found hiring new executives comes with a significant disruption in internal coordination process and if the disruption is not managed effectively, new executives’ knowledge and experience would not contribute to ventures. Our framework also contributes to conflict management literature and top management team (TMT) conflict by highlighting CEO’s agentic role in resolving TMT conflicts.

Keywords: scale-up, TMT professionalization, conflict management, TMT conflict