Information diversity and innovation for born-globals

Does being a born-global make a startup more or less likely to quit before launch, and how do innovativeness and information diversity affect the decision to start or stop a born-global venture? Born-globals, new ventures that are global from the start, simultaneously create new businesses and enter new markets, whereas firms that do not choose to start as born-globals face only the challenges of creating a new business. We examine how new ventures, both born-globals and non-born-globals, address these challenges in the earliest stages, when the idea of the company is still being formed. We predict that information diversity (i.e., using many sources of information) and pursuing an innovative venture make a born-global strategy more likely, and that being born-global reduces the likelihood of early failure in an emerging economy. Further, we propose that information diversity and innovativeness moderate the relationship between born-globals and new venture disengagement. Using data from 321 Chinese nascent startups, we find general support for these hypotheses.