Network agency and network dynamics
The literature often has assumed, explicitly or implicitly, that entrepreneurs use networks to develop opportunity, access resources, and gain legitimacy in order to perform and achieve success. Entrepreneurs’ networks have become a powerful explanation of success and performance in academia, in the business world, and in the popular press. However, research so far predominantly has relied on static pictures of entrepreneurs’ networks, which potentially provide incomplete and inadequate understanding of what actually occurs. Rather than relying on such static pictures of networks, research should rely on and build on a more social-interactive and dynamic understanding of networks. This chapter develops a social-interactive network dynamics framework that outlines various theories, perspectives, and empirical results related to network agency and network dynamics. Thus, this network dynamics framework becomes the core of the authors’ entrepreneurship-as-networking perspective. The chapter ends with discussions of potential avenues for future research.