Abstract:
Entrepreneurial networking is seen as an integral part of entrepreneurial activity. In fact, being well connected positively impacts entrepreneurial performance when creating and developing new ventures. Academic literature has extensively examined how social networks enable entrepreneurs to discover or create new opportunities and to access critical resources, including information, knowledge, money, human capital etc. Due to its significant relevance in the field of entrepreneurship, it is not surprising that a great variety of different concepts have emerged in research over time, particularly focusing on the analysis of entrepreneurial networking. Most of these concepts consider entrepreneurial networking as a purposeful and rational way to acquire resources necessary to accomplish pre-determined venture goals. This stands in stark contrast to more recent elaborations on entrepreneurial activity, analysing entrepreneurial networking under uncertain conditions. In this view, it is initially not clear to the individuals how to take advantage of their engagement in networking activities. Nevertheless, more and more studies point out that entrepreneurial networking can be effectual as well, i.e. driven by non-instrumental motivation. In that respect, this thesis aims to explore how Italian and German entrepreneurs – specifically, founders of innovative start-ups and academic spin-offs – involve, establish and leverage upon their network in the process of new venture creation. In order to shed light on this research topic qualitative interviews will be conducted. In addition, an inductive approach, namely the ‘Gioia Methodology’, will be applied to analyse the collected data, increasing the potential for theory discovery.
