New ventures rely on stakeholders to compensate for resource constraints. Although we know that stakeholders can profoundly shape a new venture’s initial strategy and behavior, we lack a more nuanced understanding of their role in creating a venture’s organizational culture – the DNA of a venture that is, once established, difficult to change. Drawing on a resource dependence perspective and a longitudinal multiple case study of eight new ventures, we build a conceptual model that illustrates how stakeholders employ different culture intervention strategies and related sets of influence tactics contingent upon their level of social identification with the new venture. Based on the respective responses of the venture’s founding teams, stakeholders adapt their tactics, ranging from sharing well-meant advice to employing rational persuasion and coercive maneuvers. These ultimately determine the extent to which stakeholders’ values and norms imprint the venture’s culture and leave a mark on the collaboration with the venture’s founding team. Our findings contribute to research on emergent venture organizing, organizational culture creation, and stakeholder engagement.
