Strategic utilization of entrepreneur's resource-based social capital and small firm growth

Abstract

AbstractAn entrepreneur's social capital can be important for their firm's growth. The creation of a network can be largely determined by strategy. This study makes a contribution by developing and testing a model of the firm growth driven by the entrepreneur's social capital that considers the entrepreneur's resource acquisition network ties. In the model a controversial combination of strong and weak tie arguments is proposed. Regression analysis was conducted using structured-questionnaire survey data from small firm entrepreneurs in Slovenia. The findings suggest that firm growth can be influenced by strategic utilization of the entrepreneur's resource-based social capital. In particular, resource network intensity can have a positive influence on firm growth, whereas the central resource ‘network person friendship’ can be negatively related to firm growth.