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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Cooperation and teamwork in technology start-ups : reflected in some Italian, British, Dutch and German findings

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Cooperation and teamwork is often a challenge for technology start-ups. Cooperation is usually needed in order to combine the variety of expertise and it requires trust between partners. The idea of national locality is changing in European enterprises because of the new shared markets and possibilities for cooperation. In this article we explore technology start-ups taking an Italian sample (N = 20) from the Torino-Milano area as a benchmark. Survey findings as well as case-study interviews are used as data. Italians are reputed to be communitarian and family minded as part of their national culture. Such start-ups would prefer to cooperate locally. A questionnaire and in-depth interviews are used to shed light on this issue. The samples from other EU countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), The Netherlands (NL) (both N = 5) and Germany (N = 24) are used for comparison. Italy still seems to prefer family values and local cooperation, but with an openness to build teams within and between start-ups. The trend is similar in the UK and Germany, but not in the NL. Results also suggest that cooperation often happens informally and randomly even if benefits of it are widely recognised.