Agentic, powerful, but unethical: New ventures’ ethical practices as the outcome of entrepreneurs’ networking behaviors and structural holes

Increasing attention has been paid to entrepreneurial ethics, with most studies mainly focusing on the characteristics of entrepreneurs and new ventures to understand the antecedents of new ventures’ ethical practices, which refers to the extent to which a new venture adopts formal managerial practices (e.g., ethical evaluation and monitoring) to guide ethical conduct. However, these studies have often overlooked the potential impacts of entrepreneurs’ agency and entrepreneurial networks. This study investigated the effects of different types of entrepreneurs’ networking behaviors on new ventures’ ethical practices via the presence of structural holes in entrepreneurial networks, and the moderating role of institutional support. Using survey data from 220 entrepreneurs, we found that network-broadening behavior exhibited a J-shaped curvilinear relationship with the presence of structural holes, whereas network-deepening behavior displayed a negative relationship with structural holes. The structural hole also mediated the relationships between the two networking behaviors and ethical practices. Institutional support weakened the negative relationship between network-deepening behavior and ethical practice via the presence of structural holes. This study enriches our understanding of network-related antecedents and mechanisms of new ventures’ ethical practice, providing practical suggestions for preventing unethical practices.