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2025 AOM Annual Meeting

ENT

Session: 26147: New Ventures & Entrepreneurship

14274: The Role of Informal Reference Points in New Venture Decision-making: Evidence from Kenya and Ghana (session 26147)

Sunday, July 27, 2025
13:45 - 15:15 CEST (GMT+2)
Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B4-m5
Session Type: Paper Session
Orientation: International,Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/qdkR6D
The crucial role of reference points in strategic decision-making is well-established. However, theorizing is mainly limited to the context of established firms in Western countries, affecting the transferability of this understanding to new ventures in less developed regions of the world. Therefore, we investigate how reference points are formed in contexts in which “conventional” reference points may be less generalizable and accessible. Our study contributes to theory by informing literature on reference point formation with important contextual boundary conditions. Specifically, our findings provide empirical evidence that new ventures in these environments often apply alternative reference points rather than “conventional” formal fact-based approaches to reference point formation. In conjunction with cultural characteristics, we observe the increasing importance of what we term “informal” relational reference points. The theoretical and practical contributions of our study are further discussed.

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