Does the Order of Organizing Activities Matter for New Venture Performance

Abstract

New firms are often established through a series oforganizing activities, but little research exists regarding the impact of thesequencing of these activities on firm performance and survival.Thisstudy seeks to provide theoretical support for the belief that new ventureorganizing does impact firm performance. A literature review describes the findings of past research on organizingsequences and activities and provides the basis for two hypotheses.Alongitudinal set of data was collected from Swedish nascent entrepreneurs(n=211) over a 30 month period.Interviews with 17 expert entrepreneursidentified a preferred sequence to organizing activities. The findings indicate that startup performance is improved when nascententrepreneurs organize their activities according to the recommended sequencesof expert entrepreneurs.When entrepreneurs engage in more organizingactivities and deviate from the recommended organizing sequence, theyexperience more negative effects on first sales and the level of new venturesales.Conversely, when they utilize the recommended organizing sequence,they experience a more rapid increase in first sales and venturesales.The implications of these findings for both researchers andpractitioners are discussed. (AKP)

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