Legitimating first: organizing activities and the survival of new ventures

Abstract

The process by which firm founders create new organizations is of considerable interest to evolutionary theorists and entrepreneurship researchers. This article tracks the life histories of 223 Swedish new ventures started between January and September 1998 by a random sample of firm founders. We explore the effect of legitimating activities on the hazard of disbanding and the transition to other firm organizing activities during their first 30 months of life. We find that undertaking activities to generate legitimacy reduces the hazard of venture disbanding and facilitates the transition to other organizing activities.

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