Friend or foe? Co-opetition and entrepreneurial networking

We study the formation of an entrepreneurial network in an environment, in which entrepreneurs who are contesting with each other for the development of a new venture have the possibility to collaborate. On the one hand, such bilateral knowledge collaborations are beneficial because they allow the integration of external knowledge. On the other hand, external knowledge collaborations reduce an entrepreneur’s incentive to invest in her internal knowledge. We analyze this trade-off and show that if the knowledge transfer between collaborating partners is complete, the only stable entrepreneurial network is one with exactly one collaboration of each entrepreneur. If, however, knowledge transfers are only partial, entrepreneurial networking becomes more important and entrepreneurs form more knowledge collaborations. Moreover, internal or external knowledge spillovers reduce the incentives to form knowledge collaboration. These results have several practical implication for entrepreneurs and managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their pursuit to better understand factors that influence knowledge collaborations with competitors and to devise their co-opetition strategy.

The synergy of causation and effectuation in the process of entrepreneurial networking: Implication for opportunity development

The resource-based view of entrepreneurial networking demonstrates how relationships are formed instrumentally through the goal-driven decision-making of causation. At the same time, evidence shows that under conditions of uncertainty, entrepreneur networking follows the non-predictive decision-making of effectuation. However, little is known about how entrepreneurs combine these two logics, that is, causation and effectuation, for opportunity development. This study identifies four hybrid combinations of causal and effectual networking behaviour. The outcome of this hybrid networking is a synergistic effect on opportunity development. This article contributes to the entrepreneurial effectuation research, analyses of entrepreneurial networking and the literature on entrepreneurial opportunity.

Women Entrepreneurial Networks and Small Business Development: A Study Based on Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka: Ongoing Research Project

This study aims to explore the role and impact of women entrepreneurs’ networks on small business performance and examine the importance of factors that are perceived by women entrepreneurs to influence the process of networking. The focus of the study is in the field of networking of entrepreneurs and it is concerned with the main theoretical and practical perspectives of entrepreneurial networking. While women's entrepreneurship is a central aspect of economic development and public policy concern in most countries, scholarly research about their entrepreneurial activities is comparatively scarce. This study specifically focuses on women entrepreneurs who engage in tourism industry within the small business sector in Sri Lanka. This study adds to the extant literature through its two-dimensional focus on entrepreneurial networking. The structural dimension which investigates who are parts of the entrepreneurial networks; the relational side which explores the contributions each tie brings to the entrepreneurial venture. Having established that a qualitative methodology is most suitable for this study, the in-depth interview and observation are deemed a particularly suitable research tools. Narrative approaches are suggested in order to “tap” the voice – and thus the stories – of the acting entrepreneurs.

The mediating role of the novelty ecosystem between personality traits, entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial ambidexterity among small and medium enterprises

This paper examines the mediating effect of the novelty ecosystem in the relationship between personality traits, entrepreneurial networking and entrepreneurial ambidexterity. Three hundred eighty-two SMEs in Kampala, Uganda, were studied to explore the influence of the novelty ecosystem. The results show that novelty ecosystem mediates the relationship between personality traits, entrepreneurial networking and entrepreneurial ambidexterity. This suggests that novelty ecosystem is a conduit through which personality traits and entrepreneurial networking relate to entrepreneurial ambidexterity. Business owners/managers should, therefore, create an enabling environment for employees to interact, learn from others through constructive feedback and tolerate learning through slip-ups and putting in place flexible policies to allow creativity. In effect, business owners/managers should create environments that are conducive to opportunity exploration, tension and exploitation.

Improving MSMEs performance through entrepreneurial marketing, entrepreneurial networking, and product innovation

This study aims to determine how MSMEs can improve their performance through entrepreneurial marketing, entrepreneurial networking, and product innovation. The research design uses purposive sampling method with a total sample of 135 MSMEs. The data analysis uses multiple linear regression through SPSS to determine whether the three variables affect MSMEs performance. This study explains that the variables entrepreneurial marketing and entrepreneurial networking encourage MSMEs performance improvement. Nevertheless, product innovation does not affect MSMEs performance. This result provides contribution to MSMEs, consumers, and the government about the strategy to improve MSMEs’ product innovation.

Legitimizing through entrepreneurial networking

This chapter presents an entrepreneurship-as-networking perspective on new venture legitimacy. New ventures are more likely to survive and perform when various audiences and stakeholders perceive their activities as legitimate. This is especially true when new ventures are pursuing something novel and innovative. Therefore, it is crucial for new ventures to gain legitimacy. In this chapter, viewing legitimacy predominantly as a process and concurrently distinguishing processes related to types of legitimacy, the authors theorize how entrepreneurs incorporate various audiences and their judgments into their active networking, thus shaping the legitimacy process. The interactions between various audiences and the entrepreneur take form through different legitimacy strategies—that is, identity-seeking strategies, associative strategies, and networking strategies—resulting in legitimacy judgments by audiences. Under conditions of high uncertainty, the legitimacy judgment as the outcome of the social interactions is co-created by audiences and entrepreneurs and is diffused outside local networks to the broader society through distributed brokerage.

University Environment, Entrepreneurial Interest and Entrepreneurial Networking as Predictors of Entrepreneurial Thinking: A Study of Public Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

The objective of this study isto identify the contribution of university environment, entrepreneurial interest,and entrepreneurial networking among student entrepreneurial thinking. This study used a quantitative approach where data were collected via survey using questionnaire. The sample consisted of 2001 students from 20 Public Higher Learning Institutions (PHEIs) in Malaysia. Multiple regression (stepwise) analyses was used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that both entrepreneurial interest and university environment contributed significantly towards entrepreneurial thinking among PHEI in Malaysia. Entrepreneurial networking did not showed significant contribution to entrepreneurial thinking. The implications of this study is thatPHEIs need to equip with relevant entrepreneurial environment and entrepreneurial activities or programs that can boost and enrich students of PHEIs with entrepreneurial thinking. Since this study showed no significance contribution of entrepreneurial networking towards entrepreneurial thinking, efforts have to be taken by PHEIs to build entrepreneurial networking with various entrepreneurial parties and agencies related to entrepreneurship that can give mutual benefit to students, universities and related parties.

Review of Studies Related to Quality Entrepreneurship (i.e. Innovation and Internationalization) as Outcomes of Entrepreneurial Networking

Research in entrepreneurial networking has mainly elucidated the processes of recognizing various entrepreneurial opportunities. Studies on entrepreneurial networking have defined a network construct in different ways to explain various outcomes. So, the underlying idea is to explain which different entrepreneurial network compositions have been applied and what various network outcomes were achieved in general and quality entrepreneurship as outcome in specific. By conducting a comprehensive literature review an effort is made to form different set of clusters for a network construct and its outcomes based on how it is measured in several studies. Specifically, along with highlighting the network constructs the research in context of quality entrepreneurship as an outcome of entrepreneurial networking is explained in detail and directions for the future avenues are highlighted.

From Attention to Action: Entrepreneurial Networks and Performance of Women-Owned Enterprises: A Theoretical Review

In the contemporary business context, the firm’s attractiveness and growth potential are demonstrated by its performance among other factors. Research has shown that women owned enterprises that utilize networking avenues to advance their businesses results in significant firm performance. Thus the objectives for the study were to discuss the key constructs of entrepreneurial networking and performance of women owned enterprises, to review theories that link entrepreneurial networking and performance, to recommend a conceptual framework that guides future studies on the highlighted knowledge gaps, and to recommend a methodological framework for future study. The study was anchored on Resource Based View, Dynamic Capability Theory, Social Capital, and Structural hole theory. The study was a desktop review of global theories related to entrepreneurial networking and performance in of women owned enterprises. Further, the empirical review was based on cross-sectional studies that explored entrepreneurial networking and performance of women owned enterprises. The studies reviewed were mainly conducted in the last ten years in developing nations in Africa and other parts of the world. The limitation of this study is that it only provides secondary data on existing studies on entrepreneurial networking and the performance of women owned enterprises. The findings indicated that these studies were convergent on the direct relationship between entrepreneurial networks and performance. A conceptual gap identified was the lack of moderating and mediating variables. The study recommended that future studies should incorporate, dynamic capabilities as a mediating variable and the business operating environment as moderating variable. Such studies should adopt explanatory non-experimental and descriptive research designs in collecting primary data which is crucial for filling the knowledge gaps identified in this study. Finally, a constructionist approach is proposed since the study seeks to add knowledge in the women entrepreneurship realm.