Title: Finding the pot of gold: leveraging social capital in international new ventures

Authors: Paul Kirwan; Tiago Ratinho; Peter Van Der Sijde; Aard Groen; Joris Heuven

Addresses: Department of Management, California State University, San Bernardino 5500 University Parkway, CA 92407-2318, USA ' IÉSEG School of Management, 1 Parvis de La Défense, 92044 Paris, La Défense Cedex, France ' Department of Organizational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands ' University of Groningen Centre of Entrepreneurship, University College Groningen, Nettelbosje 2, 9747 AE Groningen, The Netherlands ' School of Finance and Accounting, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 70.000, 7500 KB Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: The authors seek to advance the understanding of social capital in the acquisition of other types of capital in the early stages of international new ventures (INVs). International technology-based new ventures are important for the growth of an abundant economy, yet little is known about how these firms utilise social capital to develop the resources required to initiate these firms. Here, we add to the literature by first defining INVs as firms that establish foreign operations, not just foreign sales. We then empirically demonstrate that social capital acquisition and use affects the development of the resources (capital) needed for the INV development - strategic, financial and managerial. Our results demonstrate that the development of social capital precedes other forms of capital acquisition for INVs.

Keywords: social capital; personal networks; internationalisation; international new ventures; resource development; resource acquisition; abundant economy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIP.2019.099208

International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 2019 Vol.12 No.3, pp.273 - 296

Received: 18 Apr 2018
Accepted: 06 Aug 2018
Published online: 23 Apr 2019 *

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