The Influence of Support by a Network with Structural Holes on the Performance of Student Startups

This paper analyses the influence of the support from the environment, in which students live and work, on the success of student startups. A unique experiment was conducted, in which one group of students was confronted with a network of external specialists and the other group was not confronted with this network. This experiment dealt with the endogeneity problem that is often related with social networks, because this time part of the network was externally delivered to the startups involved in the experiment. The experiment also delivered data from which we can conclude that student startups in a more traditional market profit more from a dense network than from a network with structural holes in the first six months after starting their businesses. Student startups that started in less developed markets seemed to profit more from structural holes in this startup phase. In both cases there was no significant evidence that a network with structural holes contributed to a higher performance of student startups in their first six months. This paper ends with recommendations for universities how to help their student startups to succeed better within the educational system.

[1]  Nikolaus Franke,et al.  The 'making' of an entrepreneur: testing a model of entrepreneurial intent among engineering students at MIT , 2003 .

[2]  James Moody,et al.  Family Matters: Gender, Networks, and Entrepreneurial Outcomes , 2000 .

[3]  S. Sarasvathy.  Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift from Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency , 2001 .

[4]  M. Zimmerman,et al.  Beyond Survival: Achieving New Venture Growth by Building Legitimacy , 2002 .

[5]  S. Shane,et al.  Legitimating first: organizing activities and the survival of new ventures , 2004 .

[6]  S. Parker,et al.  Group Status and Entrepreneurship , 2010 .

[7]  J. Brüderl,et al.  Network Support and the Success of Newly Founded Business , 1998 .

[8]  Gerhard G. van de Bunt,et al.  How social and human capital influence opportunity recognition and resource mobilization in India's handloom industry , 2010 .

[9]  Willem Hulsink,et al.  Networking by Entrepreneurs: Patterns of Tie—Formation in Emerging Organizations , 2007 .

[10]  J. Batista-Foguet,et al.  University entrepreneurship centres as service businesses , 2008 .

[11]  H. Oosterbeek,et al.  The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurship Skills and Motivation , 2008 .

[12]  T. Elfring,et al.  Entrepreneurial Orientation and New Venture Performance: The Moderating Role of Intra- And Extraindustry Social Capital , 2008 .

[13]  Peter V. Marsden,et al.  The reliability of network density and composition measures , 1993 .

[14]  R. Burt.  The Network Structure Of Social Capital , 2000 .

[15]  Mark S. Granovetter.  T H E S T R E N G T H O F WEAK TIES: A NETWORK THEORY REVISITED , 1983 .

[16]  Peter V. Marsden,et al.  Interpretation and interview context: examining the General Social Survey name generator using cognitive methods , 1999, Soc. Networks.

[17]  Edward O. Laumann,et al.  Community Structure as Interorganizational Linkages , 1978 .

[18]  Steven B. Andrews,et al.  Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , 1995, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[19]  W. Hulsink,et al.  Networks in Entrepreneurship: The Case of High-technology Firms , 2001 .

[20]  J. Hage.  Organizational innovation and organizational change , 1999 .

[21]  J. Schumpeter.  The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle , 1934 .

[22]  N. Bosma,et al.  Success and Risk Factors in the Pre-Startup Phase , 2005 .

[23]  Walter Ruda,et al.  Target Group-Specific Design of Student Entrepreneurship Support - A German Example Focusing on Start-Up Motives and Barriers , 2009 .

[24]  P. Davidsson,et al.  The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs , 2000 .

[25]  Dean M. Behrens,et al.  Redundant governance structures: an analysis of structural and relational embeddedness in the steel and semiconductor industries , 2000 .

[26]  S. Harkema,et al.  Incorporating Student‐Centred Learning in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education , 2008 .