Networks, Networking Activity, and Organizational Emergence

Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC) 2007

Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2007

12 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2007

See all articles by Erno Tornikoski

Erno Tornikoski

Seinäjoki Business School

Scott L. Newbert

Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College - The City University of New York

Abstract

Despite the widely shared belief that networks are essential to organizational emergence, the central propositions of network theory have received less than compelling support in an entrepreneurial context (Hoang & Antoncic 2003). In response, we conduct an empirical analysis of emerging organizations in order to arrive at answers to the following research questions: (1) can entrepreneurs create new organizations by relying on their existing social networks, or must the entrepreneur enlarge that network during the gestation period and (2) how does the nature of an entrepreneur's social network (such as its content, governance, and/or structure) affect the likelihood that the organization will emerge and the necessity of networking activity? The results of our analysis suggests that (1) while initial the structure of the network is not predictive of emergence, the content is and (2) that the benefit of any increase in the size of the network may be moderated by the initial structure (size and tie strength) and content of the network. We believe that these findings can inform both academics seeking to corroborate network theory in an entrepreneurial context as well as practitioners faced with the daunting task of creating a new organization with limited resources.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

JEL Classification: M13

Suggested Citation

Tornikoski, Erno and Newbert, Scott L., Networks, Networking Activity, and Organizational Emergence. Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC) 2007, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1059501

Erno Tornikoski (Contact Author)

Seinäjoki Business School ( email )

Seinäjoki, 60100
Finland

Scott L. Newbert

Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College - The City University of New York ( email )

NY
United States

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