Team heterogeneity: the effects on startups' performance

This work is focused on the relationship between gender diversity and educational background heterogeneity and the performance of the firm. The study considers 57 teams, working in the Italian IT sector. An overview of the existent literature is given, underlying the most used theories that have been postulated over time and the possible consequences that can derive from this situation, considering the specific sector in which the companies analyzed work. Then, the results are found through the usage of ordinary least square regressions and they show that between the educational background heterogeneity and the performance there is not a clear connection; indeed, it is not possible to state whether a higher level of this type of diversity would bring an improvement or a worsening in the final outcome of the firm. Regarding the gender heterogeneity, instead, the results are better understandable: there is a negative relationship between the level of heterogeneity and the overall performance, which implies that with more diverse individuals, the levels of ROI, which measure the performance, are lower.