Returnee entrepreneurs and the performance implications of political and business relationships under institutional uncertainty

Abstract

Returnee entrepreneurs, despite their assumed advantages in possessing international experiences and advanced knowledge, suffer from liability of returnee due to a lack of relationships with political and business actors and experience institutional uncertainty in the home market as they move across different institutional environments. This study investigates how returnee entrepreneurs can strategically utilize relationships with political and business actors to achieve better performance and the conditional effect of institutional uncertainty. Based on a survey of 200 Chinese returnee entrepreneurs, we find that business relationships play a dominant role in influencing business performance and that this role is even stronger under institutional uncertainty. Political relationships support the formation of business relationships and are associated with business performance via the mediation of business relationships. Our study contributes to developing a nuanced understanding of the complementary effect of political and business relationships on returnee venture performance in emerging economies.