Title: How do new technology ventures grow? A theory of planned behaviour based assessment of inorganic growth

Authors: Leonard Benning; Tessa Christina Flatten

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Economics, Technical University of Dortmund, Vogelpothsweg 87, 44227 Dortmund, Germany ' Faculty of Business and Economics, Technical University of Dortmund, Vogelpothsweg 87, 44227 Dortmund, Germany

Abstract: Much has been researched on new venture growth in entrepreneurship, yet little is known about how exactly new ventures grow: organically or inorganically? This study pioneers in this field and empirically examines what drives a new venture's choice to pursue acquisitions with survey data from 153 managing-founders of technology ventures. Since any entrepreneurial action emerges at the nexus of the individual and the opportunity, we focus on the individual managing-founder and his intentions. By applying the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), we measure the impact of the founder's acquisition intentions and their cognitive antecedents on the firm's acquisition activities as measured by the establishment of specific mergers and acquisitions capabilities (M&A capabilities). Thereby, we show that a new venture's inorganic growth activities are strongly driven by the individual founders and their cognition.

Keywords: growth; acquisitions; planned behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSB.2020.109171

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 2020 Vol.11 No.2, pp.88 - 113

Received: 10 Feb 2019
Accepted: 27 Jul 2019
Published online: 01 Sep 2020 *

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