Tie Strength and Entrepreneurial Resource Acquisition of the Online Stores: The Moderating Role of C2C Industrial Life Cycle
Kan Wang, Robert D. Hisrich

Abstract
In recent years, the emerging online entrepreneurship field has provided research opportunities to test whether existing theories can explain the value creation mechanism in the new online context. The impact of tie strength on resource acquisition of the online stores is moderated by the early stages of the Chinese C2C industrial life cycle. Based on a survey with 178 respondents, the empirical results indicate: (1) for online stores being in business for 3 to 8 years, which means they entered into the C2C market at the introduction stage of the industrial life cycle, the main resource acquisition channel at the start-up stage was commercial weak ties; (2) for online stores being in business for 1 to 3 years, which means they entered into the C2C market at the growth stage of the industrial life cycle, the main resource acquisition channel at the start-up stage was strong ties; (3) for online stores being in business less than 1 year, which means they entered into the C2C market at the mature stage of the industrial life cycle, the main resource acquisition channel at the start-up stage was weak ties (including experiential weak ties and commercial weak ties). The paper concludes with a discussion of its limitations and future outlook.

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