The impact of entrepreneurial co-founders' support on founders' entrepreneurial resilience in the high-tech industry: The roles of perceived digital technology and perceived failure-tolerant climate

Abstract

Entrepreneurial resilience is of great significance for founders to recover from setbacks and advance the entrepreneurial process. Prior studies of resilience have explored the antecedents from the perspective of founders' characteristics, ignoring the entrepreneurial co-founders. Entrepreneurial co-founders, the founders' closest partners, influence the construction of entrepreneurial resilience. Based on social support theory, this study explored the effects of entrepreneurial co-founders' support (i.e., emotional support and instrumental support) on founders' entrepreneurial resilience. Through 103 co-founder and founder dyad samples in the high-tech industry, the results showed that: (1) compared with instrumental support from co-founders, emotional support from co-founders had a more significant effect on founders' entrepreneurial resilience; (2) perceived digital technology moderated the relationship between co-founders' support and founders' entrepreneurial resilience. Compared with low-level perceived digital technology, high-level perceived digital technology strengthened the influences of co-founders' support (i.e., emotional support and instrumental support) on founders' entrepreneurial resilience; and (3) perceived failure-tolerant climate moderated the relationship between co-founders' instrumental support and founders' entrepreneurial resilience, but not the linkage between co-founders' emotional support with founders' entrepreneurial resilience. Compared with a low-level perceived failure-tolerant climate, a high-level perceived failure-tolerant climate reinforced the influence of co-founders' instrumental support on founders' entrepreneurial resilience. From the perspective of entrepreneurial co-founders, we identified the driving mechanisms of entrepreneurial resilience in the digital era, and provided theoretical and practical references for entrepreneurs to construct entrepreneurial resilience.