Entrepreneurial Ideation and Organizational Performance: Imprinting Effects

Abstract

How does the relationship between the organizational context for venture idea formation and venture performance depend on the venture’s founding team and business environment? Using data from a survey of 2,067 firms, we show that venture ideas emerging from research lab contexts are imprinted in a way that is better aligned with a cooperative commercialization environment. Ideas from industry contexts are aligned with a competitive commercialization environment. We contribute to prior work by showing that imprinting can come both from how a venture idea interacts with the business environment and how those ideas interact with the type of founder.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, imprinting, business environment, ideation, venture performance