scholarly journals Social Networks And Entrepreneurial Growth

Author(s):  
Sherry Robinson ◽  
Hans Anton Stubberud

Social networks are important to new entrepreneurs and small business owners because the ability to access information, advice, and necessary resources is vital to the success of new firms. This study examines the social networks of European business owners according to employment size after approximately three years of survival as a business. The results show that the sources of advice used at start-up varied by the size of business with employers of ten or more people more likely to report having received advice from professional acquaintances, financial institutions and training programs, and less likely to have received advice from family and friends or professional consultants. Although these people were more likely to report that they did not need advice, they were also the least likely to report that they had no access to advice. Those with between one and nine employees were the most likely to report using professional consultants (a formal source), suggesting their informal social networks were not as well­­-developed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cai Li ◽  
Naveed Ahmed ◽  
Sikandar Ali Qalati ◽  
Asadullah Khan ◽  
Shumaila Naz

Business incubators create value by combining the entrepreneurial spirit of start-ups with the resources that are typically available to new businesses. It is widely recognized that knowledge-based entrepreneurial companies are the main creators of economic growth, and such enterprises require special business development services. Therefore, the study aims to examine the role of business incubators in providing greater services (networking services, capital support, and training programs) in entrepreneurship development. Secondly, it also examines the mediating and moderating role of business start-up and government regulations for entrepreneurship. Using a quantitative methodology, we examine 567 samples through structural equation modeling. We find that the business incubators are playing an effective mediating role in providing networking services, capital support, and training programs to individuals and entrepreneurs, which are significant for entrepreneurship development, whereas business start-up positively mediates the relationship between networking services, capital support, training programs, and entrepreneurship development. Government regulations for entrepreneurship have a direct effect on entrepreneurship development. More importantly, government regulations for entrepreneurship have a positive moderating effect between business start-up and entrepreneurship development. Our study identifies the critical resources needed to improve the quality of business incubators and to ensure the availability of such resources to improve entrepreneurship development.


1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan M. Eakin

Small workplaces present particular challenges for the promotion of occupational health and safety. However, little is known about the social organization of work in such settings and how it relates to matters of health and safety. The research on which this article is based relates patterns of occupational health behavior to the nature of social relationships within the workplace. From a qualitative analysts of interviews with 53 small business owners, the author describes the most common approach to managing workplace health and safety: leaving it up to the workers. This posture is explained in terms of the owners' perception of risk, particularly their understanding of workplace hazards, and their assessment of the social costs of ignoring or addressing such issues. Owners tended to discount or normalize health hazards, and to believe that management intervention in employee health behavior was paternalistic and inconsistent with prevailing patterns of labor relations and norms respecting individual autonomy. Many owners understood health and safety not as a bureaucratic function of management but as a personal moral enterprise in which they did not have legitimate authority. The conceptualization of the owners' responses in terms of “social rationality” has implications for addressing problems of health and safety in small workplaces.


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 357-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Varghese ◽  
Loran Carleton Parker ◽  
Omolola Adedokun ◽  
Monica Shively ◽  
Wilella Burgess ◽  
...  

This qualitative study examines the process of student learning in a small-business experiential internship programme that pairs highly qualified undergraduates with local small or start-up companies. The Cognitive Apprenticeship model developed by Collins et al (1991) was used to conceptualize students' reported experiences. The results revealed that the internship structure allowed students to acquire knowledge successfully from experts in the field, situate their learning in the environment of practice, and learn valuable professional and entrepreneurial skills not found in traditional classroom settings. Students reported an increase in self-efficacy and indicated that their interests in working in a small business were solidified or further enhanced. It is argued that these findings have important implications for researchers, small business owners and entrepreneurial and small business support initiatives in higher education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Barba-Sánchez ◽  
Yolanda Salinero ◽  
Pedro Jiménez-Estevez ◽  
Esteban Galindo

In an environment characterized by high unemployment rates among people with disabilities, the objective of the present work is to analyze entrepreneurship as a labor option which fully inserts people with intellectual disabilities (PwID) into their societies. In order to carry out this research, a case study methodology based on social network analysis has been adopted, given the nature of the variables analyzed. The results indicate that the fact of having managed to start up the company has been an important source of self-confidence and inspiration, as well as increasing and intensifying the social networks of PwID involved in the entrepreneurial project.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Susan Elder Leslie

<p>This research set out to examine in detail how eight first-time entrepreneurs went about finding out what they felt they needed to know during the first months of their business's operation, and in particular how they constructed their problems or questions in discourse and how they went about addressing them. Based on Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making methodology and work by Pamela McKenzie, the research involved semi-structured interviews in which participants were invited to recount specific instances of problems or questions they had experienced in their business. Data analysis involved close reading of both the interview transcripts and the researcher's notes and observations in order to draw out key themes and enable analysis of the discursive practices respondents used, particularly in privileging some information sources over others. The research found that the respondents experienced questions and problems largely relating to a small number of business issues, principally around the mechanics of setting up a company, deciding what kinds of services to provide and learning about the market environment in which they were operating. Like other studies of the information behaviour of small business owners, the research found that all of the respondents reported acting on information obtained from friends, colleagues or family. Most had consulted professional advisors, and all but one talked of using the Internet as a source of information. Only one respondent had sought assistance from an enterprise agency. The objectives of this research were twofold; to gather information about the actual behaviour of new entrepreneurs, and to test the potential usefulness of the sense-making methodology to an understanding of new business owners' information needs. Both of these objectives were largely met, with the research concluding that Sense-Making offers a valid and useful model with which to investigate the information behaviour of new entrepreneurs.</p>


Author(s):  
Maxwell M. Buthelezi ◽  
Marcus Sikhakhane

This study is evaluating the effective use of telecentres by small business owners. The world has changed and new ways of accessing information and obtaining knowledge is around. Telecentres can therefore play an effective role in facilitating communication between customers and small business owners. Telecentres will enable customers to access information such as services, prices, statements, information regarding a product, missed payments, history of credit supplied, etc. The study used a questionnaire to collect data. The study comes up with some recommendations that can be used by small business owners to improve their use of ICTs and telecentres.


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