Ventures' conscious knowledge transfer to close partners, and beyond: A framework of performance, complementarity, knowledge disclosure, and knowledge broadcasting

Abstract

We build a new theoretical framework that conceptually differentiates ventures' knowledge disclosure to their corporate venture capitalist (CVC) from knowledge broadcasting beyond the venture-CVC dyad and links them to venture-CVC complementarity. We test their direct, indirect, and interactive effects on venture performance. Our moderated mediation model (i) establishes knowledge disclosure as a mechanism that connects complementarity with venture performance, and (ii) predicts knowledge broadcasting beyond this dyad as a boundary condition to this indirect effect. We use 944 observations of 349 ventures along with Twitter data to test our model. Disclosure and broadcasting have a positive direct effect on performance, complementarity has an indirect effect on performance through disclosure, and this indirect link diminishes with broadcasting. Our findings point to a conflict in ventures' broadcasting strategies.