From Hardship to Salvation: Entrepreneurs’ Poverty Experience and Digital Poverty Reduction

Abstract Digital entrepreneurship has attracted growing scholarly attention for its potential to alleviate poverty. Drawing on imprinting theory, this study examines how digital entrepreneurs’ past poverty experience shapes their poverty reduction outcomes. Using two waves of survey data from over 200 digital entrepreneurial ventures in rural China, we find that entrepreneurs’ past poverty experience exerts a significant positive effect on poverty reduction outcomes, and this relationship is mediated by the development of firms’ digital capabilities. Furthermore, resource constraints strengthen the imprinting–capability pathway, thereby amplifying the indirect effect of poverty experience on poverty reduction outcomes. This study deepens our understanding of the micro-level mechanisms through which digital entrepreneurship contributes to poverty alleviation, and provides a more nuanced framework for exploring the intersection of personal history and entrepreneurial outcomes in poverty reduction. It also advances imprinting theory by introducing a process-oriented perspective that highlights capability formation as a critical pathway through which early-life adversity is transformed into entrepreneurial outcomes.