Activating Diaspora Networks for Sustainable Venture Performance: The Roles of Learning, Digital Trust, Ecosystem Participation and Institutional Support

This study examines how diaspora network embeddedness relates to participation in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and perceived sustainable venture performance among domestically based venture actors in Vietnam. Drawing on social capital theory and the entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective, diaspora ties are viewed as sources of accessible transnational social capital, with entrepreneurial learning and digital trust theorised as complementary activation mechanisms and ecosystem participation as the behavioural arena of resource mobilisation. Survey data from 245 knowledgeable venture representatives were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Diaspora embeddedness was positively associated with entrepreneurial learning and digital trust, and both, in turn, were positively associated with ecosystem participation. The direct association between diaspora embeddedness and participation was nonsignificant. In contrast, both specific indirect associations were significant, yielding an indirect-only statistical pattern without establishing a temporally ordered causal mediation process. Ecosystem participation was positively associated with perceived sustainable venture performance, and the association was stronger at higher levels of perceived institutional support, although the interaction was small. The findings extend diaspora entrepreneurship research to domestically based venture actors and specify two mechanisms and an institutional boundary condition associated with mobilising accessible diaspora resources.