The Effects of Digital Technology Strategy Configurations on New Venture Performance

In an ever-evolving digital environment, mastering digital technology has emerged as a pivotal challenge for new ventures seeking growth and progress. By integrating organizational learning theory, organizational search literature, and digital entrepreneurship literature, in this article, we investigate how new ventures configure their digital technology learning (DTL) strategies and digital technology search (DTS) strategies to promote their performance. A sample of 231 new ventures in China is analyzed to ascertain how the configuration of DTL and DTS strategies contributes to performance, particularly under the influence of digital environment support. The findings reveal that exploratory DTL based on DTS breadth is positively associated with new venture performance, and this relationship is strengthened by digital environment support. While exploratory DTL based on DTS depth exhibits a negative association with new venture performance, this negative relationship is mitigated by digital environment support. Furthermore, exploitative DTL based on DTS depth demonstrates a positive relationship with new venture performance, but this positive relationship remains unaffected by digital environment support. Unexpectedly, exploitative DTL based on DTS breadth exhibits a positive association with new venture performance, and this relationship is strengthened by digital environment support. In summary, this study offers a more nuanced comprehension of the technology strategy configurations of new ventures and advances the research on the relationship between digital technology and firm performance from a learning perspective.