Publications

Educators

September 2009
Teaching Note

"Lather, Rinse, Repeat": FeedBurner's Serial Founding Team (TN)

By: Noam T. Wasserman

Teaching Note for [809089]. View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Negotiation Deal

September 2021
Article

Joint Problem-solving Orientation in Fluid Cross-boundary Teams

By: Michaela J. Kerrissey, Anna T. Mayo and Amy C. Edmondson

Using interviews, a national field survey, and an online laboratory study, we have examined teamwork in fluid cross-boundary teams. Across three studies, we qualitatively discovered and quantitatively explored "joint problem-solving orientation" as a new team factor.... View Details

Keywords: Problem Solving; Cross-boundary Teams; Groups and Teams; Problems and Challenges; Performance

Article

Team Scaffolds: How Mesolevel Structures Enable Role-based Coordination in Temporary Groups

By: M. Valentine and A. C. Edmondson

This paper shows how meso-level structures support effective coordination in temporary groups. Prior research on coordination in temporary groups describes how roles encode individual responsibilities so that coordination between relative strangers is possible. We... View Details

Keywords: Fluid Personnel; Team Scaffolds; Team Effectiveness; Role-based Coordination; Multi-method; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Performance Efficiency

2014
Working Paper

Team Scaffolds: How Meso-Level Structures Support Role-based Coordination in Temporary Groups

By: Melissa A. Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This paper shows how meso-level structures support effective coordination in temporary groups. Prior research on coordination in temporary groups describes how roles encode individual responsibilities so that coordination between relative strangers is possible. We... View Details

Keywords: Fluid Personnel; Team Scaffolds; Team Effectiveness; Role-based Coordination; Multi-method; Health Care and Treatment; Analytics and Data Science; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Structure; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Networks; Behavior; Balance and Stability; Health Industry

SSRN

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March 2020
Article

Organizing Knowledge Production Teams Within Firms for Innovation

By: Vikas A. Aggarwal, David H. Hsu and Andy Wu

How should firms organize their pool of inventive human capital for firm-level innovation? While access to diverse knowledge may aid knowledge recombination, which can facilitate innovation, prior literature has focused primarily on one way of achieving that: diversity... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Recombination; Organization Design; Team Boundary; Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Diversity; Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Human Capital; Organizational Design

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2010
Other Unpublished Work

Split Decisions: How Social and Economic Choices Affect the Stability of Founding Teams

By: Matt Marx and Noam Wasserman

Keywords: Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Economics; Society

Article

From Orientation to Behavior: The Interplay Between Learning Orientation, Open-mindedness, and Psychological Safety in Team Learning

By: Jean-François Harvey, Kevin J. Johnson, Kathryn S. Roloff and Amy C. Edmondson

Do teams with motivation to learn actually engage in the behaviors that produce learning? Though team learning orientation has been found to be positively related to team learning, we know little about how and when it actually fosters team learning. It is obviously not... View Details

Keywords: Emergent States; Goal Orientation; Open-mindedness; Psychological Safety; Team Learning; Teams; Groups and Teams; Learning; Goals and Objectives

September 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

To Found or to Cofound? That Is the Question

By: Christina Wallace and Jo Tango

Entrepreneurs often struggle with the question of whether to found solo or alongside one or more cofounders. This case is comprised of three vignettes detailing common founding scenarios: the first-time technical founder; the serial commercial founder; and the MBA... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships

Educators

June 2025
Teaching Note

To Found or to Cofound? That Is the Question

By: Christina Wallace and Stacy Straaberg

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 824-034. Entrepreneurs often struggle with the question of whether to found solo or alongside one or more cofounders. This case is comprised of three vignettes detailing common founding scenarios: the first-time technical founder; the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decisions; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Fashion Industry; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States

July 2013
Case

Slicing Pie with a Razor: Ockham Technologies' Founding Agreement

By: Noam Wasserman and Yael Braid

Ockham Technologies' three founders are about to craft their founding agreement and split the equity among themselves. Uncertainty lingers over each member's future contributions, though—how is the team to devise a durable and effective split? Jim Triandiflou and Ken... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Conflict Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Employees; Management Teams; Product Development; Technology Industry

Educators

Research Summary

Overview

By: Shikhar Ghosh

I am focused on exploring the human side of developing early stage entrepreneurial ventures. These enterprises are characterized by the pursuit of opportunity, shortage of resources to pursue their goals and uncertainty at every step of the journey. Some of the... View Details

Keywords: Scale; Exit; Founders' Agreements; Success Measures; Entrepreneurial Risk; Founding Teams; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Europe; Middle East; Asia

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

Article

Team Scaffolds: How Mesolevel Team Structures Enable Role-based Coordination in Temporary Groups

By: Melissa A. Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This paper shows how mesolevel structures support effective coordination in temporary groups. Prior research on coordination in temporary groups describes how roles encode individual responsibilities so that coordination between relative strangers is possible. We... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Health Care and Treatment; Cooperation; Health Industry

01 Jun 2008
News

Team MBA

therapy, before he unfortunately passed away early this year. Recently, our field study team was looking to interview cardiologists. After a few e-mails, we found ourselves at Brigham and Women’s Hospital... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Research Summary

The timing of team leader coaching interventions

People who coach teams – including team leaders, senior members of an organization, and external consultants – must observe team dynamics and diagnose opportune moments to intervene. My dissertation, “The timing and type of team... View Details

31 May 2004
Research & Ideas

How Team Leaders Show Support–or Not

encouragement but also practical help in solving problems. Why do employees' perceptions of a leader's support or lack thereof make a difference in their creativity? A: We found that employees' perceptions of View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

1 Jan 2021
Interview

Encore Teams That Succeed with Amy Edmondson

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Wanda Wallace

Teams in which people are not afraid to speak up, to challenge, to risk saying a wild idea are teams with the best performance. Google has found that psychological safety is a key component of their best teams. Yet, people are afraid of causing trouble, looking... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Organizational Culture; Trust; Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness