Whom Should Entrepreneurs Approach? The Effect of Contact Status on Referring New Ventures for Acquisition

Abstract Prior entrepreneurial network literature has primarily examined how entrepreneurs’ networking efforts facilitate interorganizational exchanges, while giving little attention to the agency of their contacts. In this study, we investigate how contacts’ intra‐organizational status shapes their actions of referring entrepreneurs to their organizations for acquisition. Drawing on middle‐status conformity theory and interviews, we argue that, compared to high‐ or low‐status actors, middle‐status actors are more concerned about status loss and face a higher likelihood of such loss; therefore, they have a lower tendency to connect entrepreneurs with their organizations, resulting in a U‐shaped effect of contact status on referring actions including quantity, quality, and efficiency. Furthermore, this U‐shaped effect is moderated by organizational ownership and norms. The results based on 12,103 venture‐acquirer dyads support most of our hypotheses. Our study contributes to the entrepreneurial network literature by identifying the agency of contacts and their specific referring actions. It also adds to the network agency literature by highlighting the organizational context in which the contacts are situated as a critical enabler or inhibitor of such agency. In addition, it enriches the mergers and acquisitions literature by revealing the roles of actors at various organizational levels in facilitating corporate engagement with new ventures.