Institutional Forces and Knowledge Search Strategies as Predictors of Entrepreneurial Venture Performance
Journal of Small Business Management 2021
Posted: 1 Dec 2021 Last revised: 5 Dec 2022
Date Written: September 25, 2021
Abstract
We examine how institutional factors influence the strategies entrepreneurial ventures use as they seek the knowledge they need to perform and compete. With a focus on economic and ecosystem development, we propose a framework of interrelations between two principal knowledge-search strategies, their interactions with varying levels of institutional development, and the joint effects on venture performance. We utilize a sample of 1,470 entrepreneurial ventures to examine two hypotheses. Results, based on hierarchical regression, distributed lag analyses, and several assumptions and robustness checks show that knowledge-search strategy interrelations are complementary when institutional development is high but substitutive when institutional development is low. We execute a post hoc analysis using separate data sources to replicate these results and strengthen our findings. Finally, we discuss implications for entrepreneurial practitioners, policymakers, and scholars.
Keywords: Knowledge, search strategy, institutionalism
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