Entrepreneurship research in practice: Methodological issues (original) (raw)

Entrepreneurship research in practice: Methodological issues1

2000

This paper presents and discusses the methodology applied in the LOK Project 3.1 called Social Networks and Entrepreneurship (SNE), which focuses on the development process of high-tech and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial ventures in Denmark. The project uses a complex research methodology and design applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods in a longitudinal perspective. The quantitative part of the investigation uses

Entrepreneurship: The impact of human capital, a social network and business resources on start-up

1994

Appendices and enclosures Infonnation letter Infonnation letter to respondents who have their licences withdrawn Appendix 1. Descriptive statistics of starters and non-starters Appendix 2. Questionnaire Appendix 3. Questionnaire (English version) Appendix 4. Mu1tico11inearity diagnostics Appendix 5. The cod fanning industry Preface Many people have given their support and encouragement at various stages in the work on this dissertation. Colleagues at the Norwegian School of Fishery Science at the University of Tromse, Bemt Aarset in particular, has been of great help in identifying a suitable empirical setting for the study. Several people connected to fish fanning have willingly shared their knowledge through interviews. A special thanks to Stein lvar Antonsen, management consultant at the Institute of Regional Business Development Thanks also to Norges RAfiSldag for supporting the survey by writing a letter of recommendation to prospective respondents and to those who made this study possible by actually answering the questionnaire. I am very grateful to 0yvind Jsrgensen for assisting me in the process of data collection. His knowledge of the industry has been of great help to me in coding and interpreting the findings. Thanks also to Petter Holm for always taking time to help me solve methodological and theoretical problems. The Norwegian School of Fishery Science has provided excellent facilities (thanks to Benny Pedersen and Tove Nilsen for invaluable secretarial assistance) and a 12 month leave of absence, which was also made possible by a generous grant from the Norwegian Research Council. Professor Howard Aldrich, whose work on network and entrepreneurship has greatly inspired my own, invited me to the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His comments on my proposal and on a draft of my questionnaire have been most helpful-as have his numerous e-mail messages on methodological issues. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill I also enjoyed the hospitality of the Institute for Research in Social Science where Guy Gaddy, Ken Harding and Walt Davis offered excellent advice on model building and statistical analysis-as did Ken Bollen and Hannah Briickner in the Department of Sociology and Stuart McDonald in the Department of Political Science. Thanks are also due to Peter Bearman and Kate Stoevel for interesting discussions on the theories and methods of network analysis.

One step beyond? Towardsaprocess view of social networks in entrepreneurship

Acritical challenge for entrepreneurship scholars is the need to develop agreater understanding of (1) how, when and why entrepreneurial networks emerge, develop and change over time and (2) how network evolution impacts on the entrepreneurial trajectory. This special issue of Entrepreneurship &Regional Development begins to address these challenges by presenting arange of current works that further increase our understanding about social network dynamics during the entrepreneurial process. We begin by connecting this special issue to some of the main challenges of the ﬁeld of entrepreneurship. From this, we propose an integrative perspective required to move thinking forward. We then summarize how the diverse papers presented in this special issue contribute to opening up the research ﬁeld further and help us develop agreater understanding about the challenges entrepreneurship scholars face. We conclude this article with lessons and suggestions for future research.

Social Networks, Resources and Entrepreneurship

The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2001

The question to be addressed in this study is how social networks and entrepreneurial resources relate to and impact on entrepreneurship. This question has been answered through an empirical investigation carried out in Norway. The explanatory variables applied in the study capture up to 45.6% of the variability of start-up success. The results show that social networks are important as channels for resources. The introduction of resources as an intervening variable considerably increases the explanatory power of the network approach. The study also indicates that it is useful to distinguish between the network developed before the entrepreneurial process and the network developed through the process.

Entrepreneurship as social interaction

CINET - Continuous Innovation Network Conference

This paper aims to explore how entrepreneurs work with innovation; to explore and develop attention points in understanding entrepreneurship as social processes of interaction between people. Through interviews and engagement with entrepreneurs and key stakeholders, their actual social practices and the influence on the progress as innovators are explored. It is focused on a new local activity in a Danish town, named the I-factory which has within a year gathered almost 40 entrepreneurs. As a part of the interaction, there were created activities to encourage even more collaboration. We see entrepreneurship as socially constructed through local interactions between players and identify key themes in these interactions within the organisation, such as leadership, becoming part of the initiative and trust/mistrust. By doing so, this paper contributes to an understanding of entrepreneurship as social interaction as well as creates attention points for further research.

Network-based research in entrepreneurship

Journal of Business Venturing, 2003

Network-based research in entrepreneurship is reviewed and critically examined in three areas: content of network relationships, governance, and structure. Research on the impact of network structure on venture performance has yielded a number of important findings. In contrast, fewer process-oriented studies have been conducted and only partial empirical confirmation exists for a theory of network development. In order to address unanswered questions on how network content, governance, and structure emerge over time, more longitudinal and qualitative work is needed. Theory building in this field would benefit also from a greater integration between process-and outcomeoriented research. D

Networks in entrepreneurship: The case of high-technology firms

Euphytica, 2001

The value of networks as an integral part of the explanation of entrepreneurial success is widely acknowledged. However, the network perspective does not specify the role of networks in the emergence and early growth of a venture. We have distinguished three entrepreneurial processes in new venture development, i.e. discovery of opportunities, securing resources, and obtaining legitimacy, which are of importance for survival and performance. This paper examines how these processes are influenced by strong and/or weak ties and whether the degree of innovation (incremental versus radical) acts as a contingency factor in the way network ties support entrepreneurial processes. In this explorative study three cases on high technology firms in The Netherlands provide empirical material enabling us to develop a number of propositions on the network effect, in particular the mix of strong and weak ties, on the three entrepreneurial processes. Figure 1. Venturing through networks.

Network-based research in entrepreneurship:: A critical review

Journal of business venturing, 2003

Entrepreneurial networks: a review, methodology and typology

2010

In this thesis I explain how research on entrepreneurial networks has been dominated by two approaches: one focussing on network structures (connections between actors) and one on network flows (exchange or transformation of resources within relationships). Using configuration theory, I then make the case for an integrated approach that considers the interdependence between network structures and network flows. To achieve this, I present three papers, the first of which has been published and the other two are being revised for publication in a journal. In the first paper I examine the affect of network embeddedness (i.e., the degree to which social structure and processes shape economic action) on the performance of new technology based firms and argue that operationalizations of network embeddedness would benefit from incorporating structural network measures as well as measures of the attributes of individual relationships. I then present a second paper in which I describe a model and method (Q-analysis) for conceptualising and measuring variations in the structure-flow interdependence of networks. Together, the model and method facilitate richer examinations of the form and function of entrepreneurial networks. In the third paper I develop a typology of four network configurations based on variations in network structural complexity and network flow complexity. I then describe how different network management capabilities are suited to each of the network configurations. Together these three papers provide contributions that will help researchers to study how structure-flow interdependence affects the configuration, multiplexity (i.e., how multiple flows interact within and across relationships) and evolution of entrepreneurial networks.

Entrepreneurship research in practice: Methodological issues (original) (raw)

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