Entrepreneurship and social networks in IT sectors: the case of the software industry in Portugal

Abstract

En nt tr re ep pr re en ne eu ur rs sh hi ip p a an nd d s so oc ci ia al l n ne et tw wo or rk ks s i in n I IT T s se ec ct to or rs s: : t th he e c ca as se e o of f t th he e s so of ft tw wa ar re e i in nd du us st tr ry y 2 DINÂMIA-CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOBRE A MUDANÇA SOCIOECONÓMICA ISCTE, Av. das Forças Armadas,

Personal characteristics, business relationships and entrepreneurial performance

“…The social networking perspective assumes that entrepreneurs are linked to other people and organisations and these links may provide access to resources that may sustain a new venture (Hansen, 1995). Although these links can change and have different roles and importance at different stages in the new venture's life (Greve and Salaff, 2003), research shows that networks and networking are always important entrepreneurial tools that contribute to the establishment, development and growth of small firms (Salavisa et al, 2009;Shaw and Conway, 2000). These networks were proven important especially to high technology firms that face higher levels of uncertainty and have more interdependencies that call for relationships built on trust (Moensted, 2007).…”

The emergence of a knowledge-intensive sector in Portugal: Social networks and innovation in the software sector

“…As expected from (Salavisa et al, 2009;Hite and Hesterly, 2001), entrepreneurs tend to have a small number of informal links in the initial stage (3.5 in average) and these are very strong (an average strength of 1.9 on a scale from 1 to 2, where 1 denotes a weak tie and 2 represents a strong tie; moreover, 83% of the relationships are strong, i.e. have a high frequency).…”

Technological Public–Private Innovation Networks: A Conceptual Framework Describing Their Structure and Mechanism of Interaction

“…Social network analysis is one of the most prominent techniques used to incorporate social capital in the analysis of networks (Salavisa, 2009), to describe the shape the evolution of innovation in innovation networks, and to determine the position receptivity or popularity of network actors (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). It has been employed by many researchers in the study of innovation networks.…”