The influence of a digital strategy on the digitalization of new ventures: The mediating effect of digital capabilities and a digital culture

A higher degree of digitalization in new ventures’ product/service offerings and their processes can lead to a faster time to market and the ability to rapidly scale. Hence, it has the possibility to significantly impact the performance. To increase the degree of digitalization in new ventures, they can implement a digital strategy. Currently there is no evidence if this measure has a strong impact on the degree of digitalization. We therefore empirically investigate the influence of a digital strategy on the degree of digitalization in new ventures’ products/services and processes. We analyzed 102 new ventures using SEM. Building on the contingency theory, we show that only having a digital strategy is insufficient to achieve a high degree of digitalization. The digitalization of products/services is partially mediated by digital IT capabilities, and the effect of digital strategy on process digitalization is partially mediated by digital IT capabilities and a digital culture.