Escaping the All-Star Trap: Reshaping Leadership in Growth-Stage Technology Enterprises—Observations Based on Dynamic Capabilities Theory and Empirical Evidence from the Chinese Context

Abstract

Growth-stage technology enterprises often fall into the trap of stacking up “all-star” talent. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory and upper echelons theory, together with empirical research in the Chinese context, this paper points out that top management team (TMT) heterogeneity has an inverted U-shaped relationship with corporate digital transformation, and that excessive diversity triggers cognitive conflict and internal friction. Reshaping leadership in technology enterprises should proceed on three levels: at the capability level, building a dynamic “sensing–seizing–reconfiguring” closed loop; at the team level, seeking the “golden ratio” of cognitive complementarity and constructing a flexible “stable core + agile edge” architecture; and at the organizational level, driving the founder’s cognitive leap from chief technology officer (CTO) to chief strategy officer (CSO) and establishing a decision sandbox mechanism that supports ambidextrous learning—ultimately completing a paradigm shift from individual heroism to a symbiotic organizational system.