Laughing All the Way to the Bank: The Joint Roles of Shared Coping Humor and Entrepreneurial Team-Efficacy in New Venture Performance

Why are some new venture teams (NVTs), but not others, able to effectively cope with the demands of environmental uncertainty? Addressing this question from an intrateam dynamics perspective, we draw from the transactional theory of stress to delineate when NVTs’ use of shared coping humor and level of entrepreneurial team-efficacy might conditionally influence the relationship of perceived environmental uncertainty with new venture performance. Results from a national (USA) sample of startups found shared coping humor to positively moderate the relationship of environmental uncertainty with firm performance. Moreover, this moderated relationship was enhanced when entrepreneurial team-efficacy was high.