Too Tight to Move? How Cultural Norms and Stereotypes Regulate Imprinting in Hybrid Social Venturing

Can culture regulate entrepreneurial imprinting in new ventures? By applying imprinting and regulatory focus theoretical arguments in a cultural tightness versus looseness (CTL) framework, we examine this research question in the context of social entrepreneurs who are faced with the option to organize around a social welfare logic (i.e. pure strategic logic) or a hybrid social venture logic (i.e. hybrid strategic logic). We extend the proposition that prior commercial work experience, through socialization processes that result in imprinting, has a curvilinear relationship with the decision to organize around a hybrid strategic logic by considering the direct and moderating roles of commercial founding experience. Then, we investigate the moderating effect of cultural factors, via the lens of CTL and gender stereotypes, on the relationship between prior commercial experience and hybrid social venturing. Our empirical analysis of 1579 social ventures from 21 countries demonstrates broad support for our hypotheses. Together, our theory and findings provide insight into an increasingly important sector of the global economy, hybrid social venturing, by theoretically and empirically linking the underlying psychological and sociocultural drivers of its emergence.