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Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 2024

When Failure Is Not Fatal: Examining Venture Resource Acquisition Following Product Development Failure

Amrita Lahiri1; Chandresh Baid2; Arvin Sahaym1; Greg Fisher3

1 Washington State University · 2 Grand Valley State University · 3 Indiana University Bloomington

open access

Abstract

Product development in innovation-driven industries often fails. Although such failures cause new ventures to struggle to raise follow-on investments, some overcome this challenge. Why? Synthesizing insights from the research on signaling and social evaluation theory, we identify how certain resources can mitigate the risk of funding termination for new ventures despite product development failure. Through a longitudinal study of 254 venture capital-funded biotechnology ventures, we show that internal quality signals decrease in their effectiveness while industry endorsement signals increase in their effectiveness as quality signals over time. Our findings contribute to the literatures on entrepreneurial failure, entrepreneurial resource acquisition and signaling.

DOI
10.1177/10422587241261618
Sources
openalex

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