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Recognition of entrepreneur’s social ties and firm innovation in emerging markets: explanation from the industrial institutional environment and survival pressure

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Abstract

Despite the extensive attention to the role of entrepreneurs’ business or political ties, few studies have distinguished the basis of those social ties. The aim of this study is to explore the different roles of the entrepreneurs’ personalized and formal social ties on the firms’ innovation performance. Based on renqing and formal rules, this study extends the social ties’ typology into four categories, namely, transactional business ties, transactional political ties, guanxi business ties, and guanxi political ties. Using data collected from 209 Chinese firms, we further identify the distinctive contributions of the different ties on the entrepreneurial firm’s innovation performance under different institutional environments and entrepreneurs’ survival pressure. This paper will help researchers and managers better understand the function of social ties in innovation in emerging markets, such as China.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [number 71872032; 71402019], Project of Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education of China [number 19YJC630168], and Project of Liaoning Provincial Committee of Education [number LN2017ZD004].

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Chen, W., Han, C., Wang, L. et al. Recognition of entrepreneur’s social ties and firm innovation in emerging markets: explanation from the industrial institutional environment and survival pressure. Asia Pac J Manag 38, 491–518 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-019-09680-2

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