Entrepreneurial success: the role of social networks and human capital

Abstract

Social capital theory suggests that a firm’s external networks play a major role in contributing to its performance; hence start-ups, in order to succeed, are advised to pursue strategies that focus on the development of valuable networks, as they hold the set of resources, tangible or virtual, that may accrue to a corporate player through the player’s social relationships across these networks, facilitating the attainment of entrepreneurial goals. Although a number of empirical studies suggest that social networks indeed have an influence on entrepreneurial success, evidence regarding the nature of the relationship is still equivocal. Further, the number of studies focusing on entrepreneurial success through a network perspective in Turkey is quite scarce. Combining the merits of both qualitative and quantitative research, the present dissertation attempts to contribute to the understanding of how social capital and structural elements of an entrepreneur’s network are related with entrepreneurial success. Since there are conflicting and mixed results regarding these relationships in the literature, one additional aim is to introduce human capital in this relationship. First, in-depth interviews are used in the exploratory stage of the research providing in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation within its context. Then, quantitative data, collected via survey administration to entrepreneurs of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from Istanbul, is used to test the hypotheses developed in light of the relevant literature and the qualitative insights. Results provided corroborative empirical evidence for the mediating effect of access to resources on the relationship between entrepreneurial success and its network related antecedents, while illuminating the moderating effect of human capital elements on this mediated relationship. It is shown that human capital (education and industryspecific work experience) indeed changes the nature of the relationships in the predictive model of entrepreneurial success.