KOZUSZNIK, M.W. & EUWEMA, M. „STARFLICT: STRESS AND CONFLICTS IN START-UPS. PROMOTING START-UPS' WELL-BEING AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS”. RCP2017 CONGRESS, HANOI, VIETNAM

30 November 2017

Whether conflicts among start-up founders will disentangle into a negative spiral that threatens health and start-up success or into a positive spiral that brings satisfaction and effectiveness will depend on a dynamic interplay between the co-occurrence of different conflict types and coping strategies a start-up engages in as a team.
The objectives of STARFLICT project will be achieved using new and powerful techniques for data collection (IT-supported diary, actigraphy) and cutting-edge data analysis methods (LGCM, MSEM/DSEM) that allow for obtaining fine-grained quality data and modeling dynamics. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected from successful, failed, and current start-up teams. 
The expected results include: a) typology of conflicts in start-ups; b) assessment tool for conflicts in start-ups; c) identification of the early indicators of start-ups’ entrepreneurial success in terms of individual- and group-level coping, and d) offering practical guidelines for start-ups on how to effectively deal with conflicts and stress.
Start-ups are extremely fertile ground for conflicts and stress. However, the research on conflicts in start-ups is practically inexistent.  The STARFLICT project addresses a timely issue of start-ups’ entrepreneurial success, making this work timely both for European economy, and for the knowledge on stress and conflicts in organizations.
The knowledge generated in this project can contribute to create empirically-driven guidelines for start-ups on how to prevent and effectively deal with stress and conflicts. This can allow taking early preventive actions to avoid destructive spirals ending in start-up’s failure and to promote founders’ well-being and health and start-ups’ success.