Drivers of Firm-Government Engagement for Technology Ventures
Co-author(s): Lauren Lanahan (University of Oregon), Amol M. Joshi (Wake Forest University), Evan E. Johnson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Published in PLOS ONE, 2025
Recommended citation: Lanahan, L., Hemmatian, I., Joshi, A. M., & Johnson, E. E. (2025). "Drivers of Firm-Government Engagement for Technology Ventures." PLOS ONE. 20(10): e0333710.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0333710
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Abstract: Prior scholarship generally examines the returns generated by firm-government engagement. These studies are based on an implicit and understudied assumption – the firm’s strategic choice of whether to engage with the government. Here, we unpack the drivers of this choice. To do so, we construct a population-level sample of U.S. high-tech ventures founded between 2015–2017; the full sample exceeds one million firms. We then utilize government records to identify initial firm-government engagement; approximately 24,000 high-tech ventures reveal this preference by firm age three. We examine a range of external and internal factors that may motivate such a choice. The results indicate that firm-government engagement most prominently coincides with firm resource constraints. Features driving such engagement include: (i) underrepresented minority-owned firms; (ii) small firms; (iii) firms with greater early-stage growth potential; and (iv) firms located in less intensive entrepreneurial settings. This study offers managerial, policy, and scholarly contributions by uncovering new insights around firm strategy and government opportunities for high-tech ventures.
Keywords: firm-government engagement, entrepreneurship, technology ventures, public policy