Article Abstract
Many new ventures enter relationships with intermediaries, thereby ceding control to an organization that becomes a make-or-break audience for them. These settings foster intense experiences, suggesting that participating founders are likely to face a distinct set of challenges as they seek to build their venture’s legitimacy. Yet we lack a systematic analysis of new venture legitimation processes in the context of this critical audience type. To build new understanding of these important dynamics, we conducted an ethnographic study of three ventures in an Australian accelerator. Our study reveals three distinct legitimation pathways that ventures may follow when seeking legitimacy from a make-or-break audience—the obedient, pragmatic, and rebellious paths. We find that these pathways are jointly shaped by the expectations of the audience, the emotional experiences of founders, and founders’ reactions to these emotions in the context of perceived venture performance. We contribute to organizational scholarship by identifying a novel set of new venture legitimation pathways that incorporate emotion, conceptualizing “venture work” as a distinct type of social-symbolic work designed to legitimate startups and shedding new light on the role of new venture support organizations in entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Academy of Management Journal, December 2024
About the researcher
Greg Nyilasy, PhD is Associate Professor at Department of Management and Marketing at the FBE, University of Melbourne. His research explores the intersection of brands, marketing and entrepreneurship/innovation. Recent projects target the consumer adoption of digital technologies (Artificial Intelligence, autonomous products, VR/AR) and entrepreneurial resource acquisition and new venture legitimacy. Outside of academia, Greg has executive and consulting experience on three continents in strategy, marketing and innovation. He has helped a wide variety of blue chip corporates and SMEs in consumer packaged goods, finance, healthcare, media, retail, technology and travel. He is Non-executive Director at State Schools' Relief and the Victorian Music Teachers' Association.