Legitimacy: The missing link to investigate the dynamics of entrepreneurial teams in successful Champagne Houses

Abstract: While recent studies have emphasised the growing interest in
entrepreneurial teams, a consensus regarding the benefits of entrepreneurial
teams for newly created firms remains lacking. Consequently, legitimacy might
represent the missing link in investigating entrepreneurial team dynamics.
Legitimacy has been widely used in entrepreneurship research, although never
in an entrepreneurial team context. The aim of this article is two-fold: 1) to
examine the legitimating role of entrepreneurial teams within successful firms;
2) to investigate the different types of teams in the context of champagne
houses. We examine six champagne houses and identify 23 entrepreneurial
teams operating in them since their inception. We find that the size,
composition and profile of the entrepreneurial team provide different types of
legitimacy to champagne houses. This research provides an insightful
contribution to the literature on entrepreneurial teams and legitima