Strategic diagnosis of information processing structures and commercialization in new ventures

Both the strategic management and entrepreneurship literatures provide limited guidance on strategic diagnosis in the commercialization stage when the information processing structures of ventures are gestating. This study focuses on how founders engage in strategic diagnosis in lower development stages of venture information processing structures. A procedure using archival sales data from 90 entrepreneurs who founded their firms in 2012, serves to assess sales achievement in the first three years of the venture. Using logistic regression with robust standard errors for the analysis, this study shows that more developed information processing structures increase the likelihood of realizing sales. Labeling strategic challenges as controllable instead of uncontrollable or as lower positive-gain increases the likelihood of sales after founding.