The Sustainability Orientation of New Ventures: The Role of Imprinting, Firm Age, and Stakeholders

We provide a nuanced view of the evolvement of sustainability orientation in new ventures over time using imprinting theory. We hypothesize that a firm’s sustainability orientation after its creation constitutes an important determinant of its later sustainability orientation, even in new ventures that are not social enterprises and, instead, focus primarily on financial objectives. We further hypothesize that the exit of founders and the entry of outside investor board members represent essential boundary conditions that weaken the persistence of initial imprints. Using data from 375 new ventures, founded in the U.S. in 2013 from different industries, we find general support for our hypotheses. This study contributes to imprinting theory by evaluating the effect of events that typically happen along the entrepreneurial lifecycle on the strength of imprints from the founding period. We also contribute to the literature at the intersection of sustainability and entrepreneurship by showing that the evolution of new ventures’ sustainability orientation is significantly impacted by founder exists as well as the entry of new investors.