Title: What ties resources to entrepreneurs? - activating social capital

Authors: Andreas Strobl

Addresses: Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstrasse 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Abstract: The access to information and other resources is of major importance for entrepreneurial ventures. In order to start up a business an entrepreneur needs to provide financial capital, abilities and know-how as well as social resources. The strength of ties of a network actor influences the access to missing resources. The relationship between different tie categories has not been clarified satisfactorily yet. The research at hand seeks to investigate which ties are of strategic importance and how entrepreneurs secure resource access. The entrepreneur's perception of the network is at the centre of interest making a qualitative approach appropriate. Therefore, entrepreneurs have been investigated using an interview guideline containing open questions. The findings of this work emphasise the interaction of weak and strong ties. Commonalities between actors, trust and tie duration enhance resource access and activation of indirect ties.

Keywords: entrepreneurial networks; social capital; tie management; resource access; strong ties; weak ties; entrepreneurship; resources.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2014.062749

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2014 Vol.6 No.2, pp.140 - 161

Received: 27 Jun 2011
Accepted: 12 Jun 2012
Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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