The Impact Of Market Entry Strategies On Performance Of Platform-Dependent Entrepreneurial Firms

In recent years,digital platforms have emerged in a variety of industries,becoming not only important market fields for innovation and entrepreneurship,but also key engines for economic and social development.Platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms contribute to the evolution and prosperity of the digital platform market by collaborating with platform owners to provide complementary technologies,products,or services that create value to users.Despite the rapid growth of some platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms by entering the digital platform market,a large number of firms are still struggling to survive.Differences in the choice of market entry strategy have been identified as an important cause of variance in the performance of entrepreneurial firms.The key decision for entrepreneurial firms entering a market is when to bring what product or service to market and in what way.In other words,for firms to gain a competitive advantage,the choice of timing strategy,product strategy,and business model strategy is critical.However,there is no clear answer in the emerging context of digital platform markets to how platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms’ market entry strategy choice affects their survival and growth.Based on this,this study investigates the impact of platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms’ entry behavior strategies and entry timing strategies on entrepreneurial performance in order to open the behavioral black box of entrepreneurial agents in the digital platform market.First,based on market entry timing,this study investigates the impact of the timing of platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms entering the digital platform market on their performance.It is found that compared to mid-term entry,either early or late entry into the market is conducive to higher performance for platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms,and that the platform competition degree exacerbates the U-shaped relationship between the entry timing and entrepreneurial performance.Second,based on the product dimension of market entry behavior,this study investigates the impact of product innovation on the performance of platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms.It is found that both exploitative and exploratory product innovations promote entrepreneurial performance during market entry for platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms,but the impact of exploitative product innovation on entrepreneurial performance requires the partial intermediation of formal and informal appropriability mechanisms,whereas the impact of exploratory product innovation on entrepreneurial performance requires the partial intermediation of informal appropriability mechanisms.Furthermore,the degree of platform competition raises the importance of exploitative product innovation in capturing entrepreneurial performance.Third,based on the business model dimension of market entry behavior,this study investigates the impact of business model innovation on the performance of platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms.It is found that both efficiency-centered and novelty-centered business model innovation have positive effects on entrepreneurial performance during market entry for platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms,that executive team behavioral integration promotes business model innovation,and that the platform competition degree increases the positive impact of business model innovation on entrepreneurial performance.Finally,based on configuration perspective,this study explores the impact of the linkage between entry behavior strategies and entry timing strategies on entrepreneurial performance of platform dependent entrepreneurial firms.There are two types of market entry models discovered:single-and two-wheel innovation-driven first-mover strategies and three-wheel innovation-driven mid-and late-mover strategies,both of which are conducive to platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms achieving higher performance.The single-and two-wheel innovation-driven first-mover strategies consists of three paths: the novelty single-wheel innovation-driven first-mover strategy,the exploration-novelty two-wheel innovation-driven first-mover strategy,and the exploitative-efficiency two-wheel innovation-driven first-mover strategy.The three-wheel innovation-driven mid-and latemover strategies consists of three paths: the exploitative-efficiency-novelty three-wheel innovation-driven mid-mover strategy,the exploitative-efficiency-novelty three-wheel innovation-driven late-mover strategy,and the exploitative-exploration-novelty threewheel innovation-driven late-mover strategy.This study has three main innovation points.First,this study discovers that platformdependent entrepreneurial firms benefit from both first-mover and late-mover advantages,adding to our understanding of market entry timing theory.Second,this study opens the black box of entrepreneurial firms’ market entry behavior strategies from two perspectives:product innovation and business model innovation,and it gives detailed for further research into the behavioral mechanisms of platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms.Third,this study emphasizes the importance of meeting entry timing strategies with entry behavior strategies,which provides strategic guidance for platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms in making systematic market entry strategy choices.In general,this study investigates the impact of platform-dependent entrepreneurial firms’ strategic choices,such as market entry timing and market entry behavior,on entrepreneurial performance in digital platform markets.The study’s findings can help platformdependent entrepreneurial firms gain competitive advantages through strategic choices made during the market entry process,thereby boosting the growth and prosperity of China’s platform economy and digital economy.