How the Social Relations Affect Performance in Chinese High-tech New Ventures: The Role of Legitimacy Acquisition and Symbolic Strategy

Yunqing Liu, Zekun Dai, Yiting Wu and Fang Da

SAGE Open, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 21582440231218780

Abstract: Existing research on the relationship between social relations and new venture’s performance remains inconsistent. From the perspective of institutional theory, we introduce legitimacy acquisition and symbolic strategy to develop a theoretical model to explain the disparities in the Chinese transition economy. Based on the survey data of 242 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China’s strategic emerging industries (SEIs), this paper (1) investigates the role of legitimacy acquisition as the mediator through which the two sub levels of social relations (political and business) affecting new venture’s performance. (2) Explores the moderating role of symbolic strategies to further illustrate the conditional nature of legitimacy acquisition. The results show that legitimacy acquisition plays a complete mediating role in the relationship between social relations and new venture’s performance. Symbolic strategy improves the positive effect of political ties on legitimacy acquisition, but weakens the positive effect of business relations on legitimacy acquisition. The findings contribute to the entrepreneurial literature and make significant empirical implications.

Keywords: social relations; legitimacy acquisition; symbolic strategy; performance; new ventures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:21582440231218780

DOI: 10.1177/21582440231218780

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