Networks in New Venture Creation and Development

In the 1980s, researchers began arguing that every entrepreneur is embedded in a network that plays a critical role in new venture formation and development. The rationale given for the importance of networks is a rather simple one: network relationships are seen as providing resources to favorable conditions. Thus, they are considered especially important for entrepreneurs who are typically resource-poor. Based on this basic understanding, the thesis at hand addresses open questions related to the role of networks in new venture creation and development. It comprises five chapters, in which four studies are presented. The first two studies shed further light on the relationship between the costs and benefits that come with developing and maintaining network contacts in the stage of new venture creation. In contrast, studies three and four address two research questions in the field of already-established ventures. Specifically, the third study shows how entrepreneurs� personal networking abilities affect new ventures� networks and performance and the fourth demonstrates that entrepreneurs may foster network change as well as their network management capacity by applying the basic means of organization design to their relationship management

Entrepreneurial Orientation in Public Schools: The View from New Jersey

We utilize a sample of New Jersey schools to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and school performance. The results indicate a significant relationship between several dimensions of EO and performance after controlling for a number of relevant variables. Charter schools were found to have higher EO than traditional schools. The implications of these findings for education and entrepreneurship research are discussed

How exactly do networking Investments pay off? Analyzing the impact of nascent Entrepreneurs networking Investments on Access to Start-Up Resources

It is widely recognized that networks provide access to the resources necessary for founding a business. Up until now, however, the relationship between networking investments and the availability of resources has not been analyzed in depth. Using a sample of 416 nascent entrepreneurs, we address this issue, and provide evidence that networking investments lead to diminishing marginal resource returns in terms of financial, informational, emotional and contact support. Our results also show that resource returns strongly vary with resource type. While emotional support is quite easy to get, many more networking investments are needed to achieve financial support

Networking Ability and the Financial Performance of New Ventures: A Mediation Analysis among Younger and More Mature Firms

We hypothesize that entrepreneurs' networking abilityan individual-level skill widely studied in career researchpositively influences new ventures' financial performance. Additionally, we propose that this impact is mediated by new ventures' network characteristics and moderated by venture age. When testing our hypotheses based on a sample of 146 German entrepreneurs, we find them largely confirmed. Our results show a significant relationship between entrepreneurs' networking ability and their new ventures' financial performance, which is mediated by new ventures' network size and the strength of network relationships. Additionally, the relationships observed are salient for younger but not for more mature firms. Copyright (C) 2012 Strategic Management Society

What drives the allocation of specific investments between buyer and supplier?

This article investigates why either the buyer or the supplier would accept the greater risks associated with asymmetrical investments in specific assets in an exchange relationship. It proposes theoretical arguments and offers empirical evidence from a sample of 149 buyer-supplier relationships in the German construction industry showing that, with a given level of contractual safeguards, power imbalance and the interaction of power imbalance and trust drive the allocation of specific investments between buyer and supplier. The study thus highlights how resource dependence and trust arguments can enrich transaction cost theory in explaining the allocation of specific investment in buyer-supplier relations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Entrepreneurial orientation and SME performance across societal cultures: An international study

The concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is universally applicable, and many empirical studies report a positive relationship between EO and performance in different national contexts. Empirical research, however, scarcely addresses which country-level contingencies affect the EO–performance link. Building on two secondorder factors of societal culture—performance-based culture (PBC) and socially supportive culture (SSC)—the present study proposes and tests such a contingency framework. Using a data set of 1248 SMEs from seven national contexts, multilevel analyses show that PBC positively moderates the relationship between EO and performance, whereas SSC has no moderation effect

How specialised and integrated relationship management responsibilities foster new ventures' network development

Even though developing a new venture's network is recognised as a necessity for successfully developing a new venture, still little is known about how it may be effectively accomplished. Building on prior research, this paper develops and tests three hypotheses about how young ventures' network development may benefit from specialising and integrating relationship management responsibilities. Our results, based on a sample of 117 young ventures, provide strong support for our hypotheses. They show that new ventures' members that apply the basic means of organisation design to their management of external relations develop more new network relationships, dissolve more existing ones, and have larger networks in total

For whom size matters - the interplay between incubator size, tenant characteristics and tenant growth

The present study introduces a multilevel fit' perspective on business incubation to examine the link between incubator size and tenant growth. We suggest that the effect of incubator size on tenant growth is not universally positive or negative but is contingent upon (a) the size of the tenants' venture team and (b) whether tenants are operating in a high-tech industry. Based on data from 276 tenants hosted in 67 business incubators in Germany, multilevel analyses provide support for our hypotheses. With its findings, the present study complements earlier incubator research and expands our knowledge on which types of business incubators are best suited to facilitate venture development

How Exactly Do Network Relationships Pay Off? The Effects of Network Size and Relationship Quality on Access to Start-Up Resources

Entrepreneurs are expected to profit from network relationships. Research addressing the link between entrepreneurs' network characteristics and their performance, however, has so far produced inconclusive results. In an attempt to explain these inconsistencies, we investigate the resource returns connected to network size and relationship quality. Based on a sample of 379 nascent entrepreneurs, we find that increasing network size and relationship quality results in diminishing marginal returns in terms of access to financial capital, knowledge and information, and additional business contacts. Additionally, we observe that the returns vary strongly by resource type

Relational trust and new ventures' performance: the moderating impact of national-level institutional weakness

This study investigates the link between relational trust in exchange partners and new venture performance, and determines whether weakness in national-level formal institutions influences this link. Based on a sample of 203 entrepreneurs and their new ventures from Germany and China, findings reinforce the idea that new venture performance may profit from relational trust in exchange partners. However, interaction analyses also reveal that the performance implications of relational trust are contingent on the institutional context. The contributions and implications of these findings are discussed