‘Social Network of Entrepreneurs and Its impact of small business growth’

Abstract

This paper explore the differences and similarities in the composition and structure of entrepreneurial social network at various stages of venture development and explore the impact of entrepreneurs social capital on business performance. Structural embedddeness (i.e. Configuration) of an entrepreneurs’ social network and the relational embeddedness (i.e.-strength) of those relations are considered. Based on 101 entrepreneurs in small retail businesses, this paper presents evidence indicating that different network configuration are associated with the mobilisation of different types of resources and also show different evolutions. Hierarchical regression results shows that after controlling for the most economic factors Strong diversified regular ties play a key role in explaining the business performance. This research contributes a deeper knowledge and understanding of network characteristics of small retail businesses for accessing resources which in turn influence on business performance.