Driving Configuration for Growth of New Technology-Based Ventures in China from an Optimal Distinctiveness Perspective

The survival and sustainable development of new technology-based ventures (NTBVs) have become challenging due to the unpredictable and dynamic technological environment as well as the scarcity of their own resources. Considering the tension between "conformity" and "distinctiveness" faced in NTBVs' growth, based on the optimal distinctiveness perspective, we develop a configurational framework to investigate how combinations of multiple factors (i.e., political guanxi, business guanxi, exploratory innovation, exploitative innovation, environmental dynamism, and environmental munificence) lead to high enterprise growth. This study analyzes survey data of 30 Chinese NTBVs by conducting a necessary condition analysis (NCA) to inspect the necessary relationships between each condition and the outcome and employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to determine the configurations to achieve growth. It is shown that individual elements do not compose the necessary conditions for yielding high enterprise growth, and high levels of new venture growth require different configurations of antecedents to be achieved. Furthermore, four types of driving pathways are identified for the NTBVs' growth, each of which contains different compositions of enterprise strategy and external environment. These findings enhance the literature on enterprise growth and its influencing factors and provide implications for NTBVs to achieve high-quality growth and development.