Digital Entrepreneurship of Born Digital and Grown Digital Firms: Comparing the Effectuation Process of Yihaodian and Suning

This paper examines digital entrepreneurship in born digital and grown digital firms. Of late, digital entrepreneurship has garnered renewed attention from national leaders, practitioners, and academics due to the phenomenal success of a number of digital startups and the radical disruptions brought by the innovative use of technologies. Despite the significance and the promises of digital technology, especially amid the gloomy economy, digital entrepreneurship has remained inadequately analyzed for its predominant focus on entrepreneurs (human agency) and newly founded firms (context). This study offers an in-depth analysis of two entrepreneurial firms, Yihaodian and Suning, which are among the largest e-commerce players in China. By adopting effectuation as our theoretical lens, this study aims to generate an understanding of the digital entrepreneurial process in both born digital and grown digital firms.