Linking user interaction and new venture growth: the mediating role of new product development

ABSTRACTThis paper identifies both the breadth and the depth as two crucial dimensions of user interaction from an ecosystem viewpoint. We postulate that the breadth and the depth of user interaction are critical to the number of new products developed and development speed, which can then lead to new venture growth. Survey data from 341 new ventures from ICT sector illustrates that the number of new products developed mediates the relationships between user interaction breadth, user interaction depth and new venture growth, and development speed mediates the influence of user interaction depth on new venture growth. This study contributes to the literature by refining the conceptualization of user interaction, and developing a theoretically grounded research model to investigate the relationships among user interaction, new product development and new venture growth.