A Dyad-Based Analysis of New Venture Success

Abstract

We examine variance in the performance of new ventures that emerged prior to the Internet bubble burst with data that spans beyond it. These firms faced high uncertainty, and were hoping to compensate founders and investors with appropriately high returns. We address the performance issues through the use of dyads, where Internet-related ventures are matched to non-Internet ventures. We find that the Internet has a positive effect on both performance and volatility measures. We also find that incentive, value proposition, and context factors explain performance variance within the sample of Internet-related ventures, as well as terminal events within that sample.