Women business owners’ start-up motivations and network content

Abstract

This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of women small business owners' networking behaviours and structures. The study examined whether business start-up motivations and phase of the business (prestart-up, start-up and established) influenced women's networking behaviours and structures. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 women. Interview data were used to categorise participants into classic, forced, and work-family owners. Analysis of the interviews found no marked differences in networking behaviours and network structures of participants during prestart-up phase. During start-up and established phases differences began to emerge. Given that classic and forced owners had established their businesses for financial reasons, a diverse network was more relevant for them. However, work-family participants established the business for family/work balance, thus a small network of close ties was sufficient to achieve their business goals. Theoretical, practical and research implications of the findings are outlined.

Nascent Women Entrepreneurs and the Influence of Social Networks on Small Business Outcomes

“…Early research by Granovetter (1973)and more recent work by Kuhn, Galloway and Collins-Williams (2016), Kuhn and Galloway (2015) and Sharafizad and Coetzer (2016) Suggests that social networks are critically important to the entrepreneurial process and are central to business venture success and for women in particular (Cabrera and Mauricio 2017). Social network characteristics include network size, network density, network diversity, the balance of strong and weak ties, and network redundancy (Licht & Siegel 2006).…”

“…In the context of entrepreneurship, social networks provide the channels through which private information flows and facilitate information exchange that is beneficial, even essential, to the entrepreneurial process (Stuart &Sorenson 2005, Sharafizad andCoetzer 2016).Following recent reviews of the literature too, social networks act as aspects of the micro-environment in which nascent entrepreneurs operate and grow (Cabrera and Mauricio 2017). Greve and Salaff (2003) demonstrate that entrepreneurs talk with more people during the planning phase than all other phases of business development.…”

“…According to Robinson and Stubberud (2009), "if an entrepreneur's network is limited to a group of people who cannot provide valuable information about business, the performance of his or her firm is likely to suffer in comparison to that of a company whose owner is able to take advantage of a diverse, high quality network." Understanding the factors that contribute to successful network usage, growth and sustainability for women entrepreneurs in particular is essential given the deficiencies acknowledged by Stuart and Sorenson (2005) and more recently by Sharafizad and Coetzer (2016).…”

Business growth through intentional and non-intentional network processes

“…From the beginning, very few new venture firms have the full range of knowledge and experience needed to achieve competitive advantage. To compensate for this need, firms are increasingly engaging in various network collaborations to access external knowledge and capabilities (Daskalopoulou and Petrou, 2010;Sharafizad and Coetzer, 2016). Moreover, Nordhaug (1993) and Doz and Hamel (1998) claim that knowledge can be accessed by building knowledge networks, which is also understood as "building knowledge reservoirs" (Widding, 2007).…”

“…We contribute to the understanding of the organic growth mode by investigating how expansions of knowledge through networking trigger growth. Considering Penrose's (1959) resource-based theory of firms, knowledge and knowledge networks are among the most important resources for a company's competitiveness (Daskalopoulou and Petrou, 2010;de Boer et al, 1999;Doz and Hamel, 1998;Sharafizad and Coetzer, 2016;Widding, 2005) and thus are essential stepping stones in achieving growth. From the beginning, very few new venture firms have the full range of knowledge and experience needed to achieve competitive advantage.…”