How Social Network Influences the Growth of Entrepreneurial Enterprises: Perspective on Organizational and Personal Network

Abstract

Network size, network density, and tie strength together determine the function of social network and affect the growth of entrepreneurial enterprises. However, how the role of network size, network density, and tie strength on the growth of entrepreneurial enterprises remains inconsistent, as well as the effect of organizational and personal network remains unclear. To solve these relationships, we employ meta-analysis to reach study goals by researching 31 independent samples from 28 references with 5,259 observations. Results have shown two main findings: (1) Both network size and tie strength have a positive and significant impact on the growth of entrepreneurial enterprises, while network density does not correlate with the growth. (2) Organizational network mainly plays a positive effect between network size and growth, while personal network plays a more significant role in the relationship of tie strength and growth than organizational network. These results promote managers to take productive strategies for entrepreneurial enterprises’ growth. Our study provides a meta-analysis to merge different sounds about the relationship of network properties to the growth of entrepreneurial enterprises, emphasizing moderators of organizational and personal networks among these above relationships. Thus, these findings make significant contributions to the field of entrepreneurship.