Does More Certification Always Benefit a Venture?

An implicit assumption in institutional theory is that more certifications improve a venture’s likelihood for success. However, under certain conditions, we argue more certifications may be detrimental to the venture’s performance. We advance this notion by examining both who is doing the certification and, in turn, what information is revealed to others through the certification. Our study advances two new constructs based on varying instances of follow-on certification: certification broadening, where the initial and follow-on certifiers are different institutions, and certification redundancy, where the initial and follow-on certifiers are the same institution. By studying sequences of certification in the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research federal and state programs, we find that certification broadening generally increases a firm’s ability to acquire private resources, whereas certification redundancy generally decreases a firm’s ability to acquire private resources. This study advances a more dynamic view of certification within institutional theory—namely, when we disaggregate sequences of certifications, we are able to better ascertain when certification helps a venture and when it does not. The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1211 .