Networks in New Venture Creation and Development

In the 1980s, researchers began arguing that every entrepreneur is embedded in a network that plays a critical role in new venture formation and development. The rationale given for the importance of networks is a rather simple one: network relationships are seen as providing resources to favorable conditions. Thus, they are considered especially important for entrepreneurs who are typically resource-poor. Based on this basic understanding, the thesis at hand addresses open questions related to the role of networks in new venture creation and development. It comprises five chapters, in which four studies are presented. The first two studies shed further light on the relationship between the costs and benefits that come with developing and maintaining network contacts in the stage of new venture creation. In contrast, studies three and four address two research questions in the field of already-established ventures. Specifically, the third study shows how entrepreneurs� personal networking abilities affect new ventures� networks and performance and the fourth demonstrates that entrepreneurs may foster network change as well as their network management capacity by applying the basic means of organization design to their relationship management.