A Study of Entrepreneurship Network Development
Abstract
There is broad consensus among entrepreneurship scholars of the need to develop a more complete and integrated understanding of network development and change processes. This paper presents a study of entrepreneurship network development that quantifies network capital and network structure as the firm grows. The focus is on the transformation of entrepreneurship networks and how they develop over time. This research addresses an important gap in the entrepreneurship literature, where network relationships and network structure are simultaneously explored, and the dependent variable is the network itself. By drawing on the proposed arguments of Larson and Starr (1993) and Hite and Hesterly (2001), this study proposes integrating these two theoretical models to gain a more cohesive perspective of the evolution of the entrepreneur’s social network. This would provide scholars the ability to evaluate the various and often conflicting theoretical arguments, through micro- and macro-level lens, assessing changes in network ties and patterns of network structure. This research also tests for the moderating effects of industry environment, using a five-item scale to measure environmental dynamism. Findings from this research provide limited support for the propositions presented in the earlier literature, where the focus is on off-line networks. This research provides evidence that the rapid growth of online social network platforms and the interplay between offline and online networks have resulted in changing paradigms that require consideration of new theory that reflects the current business environment, where online networks have assumed a much greater role and the entrepreneur is less dependent on the resources and relationships provided by their offline networks.
Subject Area
Entrepreneurship|Information Technology|Computer Engineering|Labor relations|Organizational behavior
Recommended Citation
Rosenblatt, Meryl, "A Study of Entrepreneurship Network Development" (2020). ETD Collection for Pace University. AAI28091392.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/dissertations/AAI28091392
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