Title: How individual competencies shape the entrepreneur's social network structure: evidence from the MENA region

Authors: Sarfraz A. Mian; Hala W. Hattab

Addresses: School of Business, State University of New York, Oswego, NY 13126, USA ' Faculty of Business Administration, Economics and Political Science, The British University in Egypt, El Sherouk City, Suez Desert Road, Cairo, 11837 – P.O. Box 43, Egypt

Abstract: Our study explores the role of individual entrepreneurial competencies in the shaping of social networks around nascent entrepreneurs. We employ GEM's dataset on the process of networking in the MENA region to empirically define three types of social networks: limited, private, and diverse. This allowed us to explore the relationship between an entrepreneur's network type and his/her individual competencies (startup-skills, opportunity-recognition and risk-willingness) as they evolve during the emergence of the respondent's networks. Using multinomial logistic regression methodology we show a small, but reliable relationship between startup-skills, opportunity-recognition, risk-willingness, and the phase of development of the respondent's enterprise.

Keywords: social networking; entrepreneurial competency; global entrepreneurship monitor; GEM; MENA region; individual competencies; entrepreneurs; social network structure; SNS; entrepreneurial networks; Middle East; North Africa; network types; limited networks; private networks; diverse networks; startup skills; opportunity recognition; risk willingness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2013.056876

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2013 Vol.11 No.4, pp.399 - 412

Published online: 21 Nov 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article