Making conflicts cooperative in VC-Entrepreneur relationships: voicing out and escalating dissent.

Summary Conflict in the VCs-entrepreneurs relationships is now considered as a normal phenomenon by the entrepreneurship literature. This article draws on important results from the literature on antecedents and outcomes of conflict and the one on conflict management and introduces a deeper understanding of how VCs and entrepreneurs use the conflicts occurring in their relationship to develop cooperation. Using an inductive multiple-case study of 14 VC-entrepreneur dyads, it shows that VCs and entrepreneurs develop two behaviors, voicing out and escalating, enabling them to turn conflicting situations into dialogue and cooperation.