The decision to not register an enterprise at its founding is pervasive globally, even though research has shown that nonregistration at founding may adversely influence the performance of legally registered businesses (hereinafter called firms). In this “generalization and extension” study, we extend the literature on the registration–performance relationship by (a) documenting the heterogeneity across countries in the effect of registration at founding on firm performance of legally registered businesses and (b) examining potential reasons driving this heterogeneity. Building upon the legitimacy-based view, we replicate the work of Assenova and Sorenson (Organ Sci 28(5):804–818, 2017), who analyzed enterprise-level data on 12,146 firms across 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. To test for generalizability, we analyze enterprise-level data on 134,198 firms across 143 countries. Our analyses reveal that the positive effect of registration at founding on firm performance successfully replicates in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is remarkable heterogeneity across countries globally. We find that the country’s regulatory burden and market openness moderate the effect of registration at founding. Lower regulatory burden and greater openness of the country’s markets substantially strengthen the positive effect of the decision to register at founding on firm performance.

尽管研究表明在成立时不注册可能会对合法注册企业（以下简称公司）的业绩产生不利影响，但在企业成立时不注册的决定在全球范围内普遍存在。在这项“概括和扩展”研究中，我们通过以下方式扩展了关于注册-绩效关系的文献：(a) 记录各国在成立时注册对合法注册企业的公司绩效的影响的异质性，以及 (b) 研究推动这种异质性。基于基于合法性的观点，我们复制了 Assenova 和 Sorenson 的工作（Organ Sci 28(5):804-818, 2017），他们分析了撒哈拉以南非洲 18 个国家的 12,146 家公司的企业级数据。为了测试普遍性，我们分析了 143 个国家的 134,198 家公司的企业级数据。我们的分析表明，成立时注册对公司业绩的积极影响在撒哈拉以南非洲成功复制。然而，全球各国之间存在显着的异质性。我们发现，该国的监管负担和市场开放程度缓和了建国时注册的效果。较低的监管负担和该国市场的更大开放性大大加强了在成立时注册决定对公司业绩的积极影响。我们发现，该国的监管负担和市场开放程度缓和了建国时注册的效果。较低的监管负担和该国市场的更大开放性大大加强了在成立时注册决定对公司业绩的积极影响。我们发现，该国的监管负担和市场开放程度缓和了建国时注册的效果。较低的监管负担和该国市场的更大开放性大大加强了在成立时注册决定对公司业绩的积极影响。