Chief executive officer participative leadership and the performance of new venture teams

Abstract

In this article, we examine the mediating role played by affective and cognitive trust in chief executive officer (CEO) and intra-group trust, on the relationship between CEO participative leadership and the performance of the top management team (TMT) and its members within entrepreneurial new ventures. Drawing on four waves of multilevel, multi-source data, our study extends social exchange theory by teasing out the trust-based social exchange mechanisms linking CEO participative leadership to performance outcomes. Specifically, the data analysis revealed that intra-group trust mediated the relationship between CEO participative leadership and TMT performance, while affective trust mediated the relationship between CEO participative leadership and performance of TMT members. However, cognitive trust did not mediate this relationship. This suggests that it is important for CEOs of new ventures to use participative leadership to create strong levels of affective trust with TMT members and intra-group trust within the TMT.