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The effect of business ties and government ties on new IT venture growth: an empirical examination in China

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Abstract

The advancement of information technology in the past three decades is tremendous, and much of the advancement can be attributed to numerous new IT ventures that invent and commercialize a variety of information technologies. But new IT venture growth has not been sufficiently addressed by IS/IT researchers. In this research, we synthesized the literature on entrepreneurship, strategy, and management to develop a model linking business ties and government ties to new IT venture growth, while considering the effect of two contextual factors, firm size and legitimacy. We then collected empirical data from new IT ventures in China (N = 457). Regression analyses showed that both business ties and government ties positively affect new IT venture growth, and their effect is moderated by firm size and legitimacy. These insights contribute to both the literature and practices.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate the valuable comments from the editor and the anonymous reviewers. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 71472072 and 71232011; and supported by “Peak subjects (group)” of Jilin University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Jilin University, 5988 Renmin Street, Changchun City, 130022, Jilin Province, China

    Xueling Li & Jia Shen

  2. School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Wenjie Ma

  3. Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences, Strome College of Business, Old Dominion University, 2028 Constant Hall, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

    Weiyong Zhang

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  1. Xueling Li
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  2. Jia Shen
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Correspondence to Jia Shen.

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Li, X., Shen, J., Ma, W. et al. The effect of business ties and government ties on new IT venture growth: an empirical examination in China. Inf Technol Manag 17, 245–261 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-015-0233-5

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