Antecedents and Consequences of New Venture Growth Strategy : An Empirical Study in China

Although current literature on new venture growth has focused on why new ventures grow, relatively less attention has been paid to how that growth is occurring. This article adopts the resource-based view to investigate the antecedents and consequences of new venture growth strategy in an emerging economy context. We identify three generic growth patterns of Chinese high-tech new ventures - organic growth, partnership growth and acquisition growth, based on 252 completed questionnaires. Consideration has been given to identify respective resources and capabilities associated with different growth strategies. Technological capabilities, strong and weak network ties, marketing capabilities and financial resources are found to have different effects on different new venture growth strategies. In addition, the growth strategies show differentiated effects on performance in terms of survival, competitive advantages and profits. Research and practical implications of new venture growth strategies and performance in China are also discussed in the paper