IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/abaman/v24y2025i3d10.1057_s41291-025-00290-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How and when can the start-up repair venture capital firms’ trust with an informational strategy after task conflict: a moderated mediation model

Author

Listed:
  • Ping Han

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University
    The Key Lab of the Ministry of Education for Process Management & Efficiency Engineering)

  • Shuwei Hao

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Bingqing Luo

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

Abstract

Task conflict arising from China’s dynamic and uncertain entrepreneurial environment highlights a pressing need for the start-up to repair venture capital firms’ (VCFs’) trust. However, trust repair in the Chinese entrepreneurship context is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategies, mechanisms, and contingencies involved in the process of the start-up repairing VCFs’ trust after task conflict. Drawing on signaling theory, we developed a moderated mediation model that communication openness strengthens the indirect effect of informational strategy on improving trust through reducing perceived risk. Using an experimental vignette approach, we adopted a 2 × 2 between-subject design. We collected data from 310 subjects with working experience in VCFs in China and tested the model using conditional process modeling. The results supported all hypotheses. This paper advances scholarly understanding of the trust repair process in Chinese entrepreneurship and provides practical guidance to start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Suggested Citation

  • Ping Han & Shuwei Hao & Bingqing Luo, 2025. "How and when can the start-up repair venture capital firms’ trust with an informational strategy after task conflict: a moderated mediation model," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 428-459, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:abaman:v:24:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1057_s41291-025-00290-z
    DOI: 10.1057/s41291-025-00290-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41291-025-00290-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41291-025-00290-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Julius Agbor, 2016. "Does Trust Matter for Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Cross-Section of Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Steven Grover & Marie-Aude Abid-Dupont & Caroline Manville & Markus Hasel, 2019. "Repairing Broken Trust Between Leaders and Followers: How Violation Characteristics Temper Apologies," Post-Print halshs-02282012, HAL.
    3. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    4. Todd W. Moss & Donald O. Neubaum & Moriah Meyskens, 2015. "The Effect of Virtuous and Entrepreneurial Orientations on Microfinance Lending and Repayment: A Signaling Theory Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(1), pages 27-52, January.
    5. Arthurs, Jonathan D. & Busenitz, Lowell W. & Hoskisson, Robert E. & Johnson, Richard A., 2009. "Signaling and initial public offerings: The use and impact of the lockup period," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 360-372, July.
    6. Canfei He & Jiangyong Lu & Haifeng Qian, 2019. "Entrepreneurship in China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 563-572, March.
    7. Daniel Appelhoff & René Mauer & Veroniek Collewaert & Malte Brettel, 2016. "The conflict potential of the entrepreneur’s decision-making style in the entrepreneur-investor relationship," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 601-623, June.
    8. Manuel Kaiser & Elisabeth S. C. Berger, 2021. "Trust in the investor relationship marketing of startups: a systematic literature review and research agenda," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 491-517, April.
    9. Jiri Chod & Evgeny Lyandres, 2021. "A Theory of ICOs: Diversification, Agency, and Information Asymmetry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 5969-5989, October.
    10. Davide Gentili & Andrea Bardin & Elisa Ros & Cinzia Piovesan & Mauro Ramigni & Maria Dalmanzio & Marco Dettori & Antonietta Filia & Sandro Cinquetti, 2020. "Impact of Communication Measures Implemented During a School Tuberculosis Outbreak on Risk Perception among Parents and School Staff, Italy, 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Sharma, Piyush & Leung, T.Y. & Kingshott, Russel P.J. & Davcik, Nebojsa S. & Cardinali, Silvio, 2020. "Managing uncertainty during a global pandemic: An international business perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 188-192.
    12. Steven L. Grover & Marie-Aude Abid-Dupont & Caroline Manville & Markus C. Hasel, 2019. "Repairing Broken Trust Between Leaders and Followers: How Violation Characteristics Temper Apologies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 853-870, March.
    13. James H. Stock & Motohiro Yogo, 2002. "Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression," NBER Technical Working Papers 0284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Shepherd, Dean A. & Douglas, Evan J. & Shanley, Mark, 2000. "New venture survival: Ignorance, external shocks, and risk reduction strategies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(5-6), pages 393-410.
    15. Steven L. Grover & Marie-Aude Abid-Dupont & Caroline Manville & Markus Hasel, 2019. "Repairing Broken Trust Between Leaders and Followers : How Violation Characteristics Temper Apologies," Post-Print hal-02312008, HAL.
    16. Christopher Courtney & Supradeep Dutta & Yong Li, 2017. "Resolving Information Asymmetry: Signaling, Endorsement, and Crowdfunding Success," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(2), pages 265-290, March.
    17. Pieter Desmet & David Cremer & Eric Dijk, 2010. "On the Psychology of Financial Compensations to Restore Fairness Transgressions: When Intentions Determine Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 105-115, September.
    18. Edward C. Tomlinson, 2011. "The context of trust repair efforts: Exploring the role of relationship dependence and outcome severity," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 139-157, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Kleinert, 2024. "The Promise of New Ventures’ Growth Ambitions in Early-Stage Funding: On the Crossroads between Cheap Talk and Credible Signals," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 48(1), pages 274-309, January.
    2. Hui Zheng & Xuexu Piao & Sangmoon Park, 2021. "The Role of Founder-CEO, Human Capital and Legitimacy in Venture Capital Financing in China’s P2P Lending Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Kähkönen, T. & Blomqvist, K. & Gillespie, N. & Vanhala, M., 2021. "Employee trust repair: A systematic review of 20 years of empirical research and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 98-109.
    4. Ana Paula Matias Gama & Ricardo Emanuel Correia & Mário Augusto & Fábio Duarte, 2023. "Third-party signals in crowdfunded microfinance: which microfinance institutions boost crowdfunding among refugee entrepreneurs?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 559-586, August.
    5. Janina Sundermeier & Tyge-F. Kummer, 2022. "Does personality still matter in e-commerce? How perceived hubris influences the assessment of founders’ trustworthiness using the example of reward-based crowdfunding," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1127-1144, September.
    6. Calic, Goran & Shevchenko, Anton, 2020. "How signal intensity of behavioral orientations affects crowdfunding performance: The role of entrepreneurial orientation in crowdfunding business ventures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 204-220.
    7. Norbert Steigenberger & Hendrik Wilhelm, 2018. "Extending Signaling Theory to Rhetorical Signals: Evidence from Crowdfunding," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 529-546, June.
    8. Anglin, Aaron H. & Short, Jeremy C. & Drover, Will & Stevenson, Regan M. & McKenny, Aaron F. & Allison, Thomas H., 2018. "The power of positivity? The influence of positive psychological capital language on crowdfunding performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 470-492.
    9. Francesco Cappa & Michele Pinelli & Riccardo Maiolini & Maria Isabella Leone, 2021. "“Pledge” me your ears! The role of narratives and narrator experience in explaining crowdfunding success," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 953-973, August.
    10. Yang, Shu & Kher, Romi & Newbert, Scott L., 2020. "What signals matter for social startups? It depends: The influence of gender role congruity on social impact accelerator selection decisions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(2).
    11. Jeffrey A. Chandler & Jacob A. Waddingham & Marcus T. Wolfe, 2024. "Virtue Signaling in the Sharing Economy: The Effect of Airbnb Entrepreneurs’ Virtue Language on Airbnb Price Premiums," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 48(4), pages 1009-1036, July.
    12. Julian Bafera & Simon Kleinert, 2023. "Signaling Theory in Entrepreneurship Research: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2419-2464, November.
    13. Emanuel-Correia, Ricardo & Duarte, Fábio & Gama, Ana Paula Matias & Augusto, Mário, 2022. "Does peer-to-peer crowdfunding boost refugee entrepreneurs?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    14. Ko, Eun-Jeong & McKelvie, Alexander, 2018. "Signaling for more money: The roles of founders' human capital and investor prominence in resource acquisition across different stages of firm development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 438-454.
    15. Elrashidy, Zeinab & Haniffa, Roszaini & Sherif, Mohamed & Baroudi, Sarra, 2024. "Determinants of reward crowdfunding success: Evidence from Covid-19 pandemic," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    17. Jascha-Alexander Koch & Michael Siering, 2019. "The recipe of successful crowdfunding campaigns," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(4), pages 661-679, December.
    18. Fatima, Samar & Desouza, Kevin C. & Denford, James S. & Dawson, Gregory S., 2021. "What explains governments interest in artificial intelligence? A signaling theory approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 238-254.
    19. Sun Hee Lee & Sang‐Youn Lee, 2024. "The effect of signaling on crowdfunding performance on social economy organizations in South Korea," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(3), pages 783-813, September.
    20. Berns, John P. & Jia, Yankun & Gondo, Maria, 2022. "Crowdfunding success in sustainability-oriented projects: An exploratory examination of the crowdfunding of 3D printers," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:abaman:v:24:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1057_s41291-025-00290-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.