Title: Do all roads lead to Rome? An investigation into social networks for entrepreneurs to acquire resources

Authors: Jinpei Wu; Shuyi Zhang; Christopher P. Neck

Addresses: School of Business, SUNY Oswego, USA ' Division of Employment and Entrepreneurship, Shanghai Finance University, China ' Department of Management, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Box 874006 Tempe, AZ, USA

Abstract: The closure argument and structural holes argument of networks theory have been favoured by different researchers. This paper attempts to combine them for entrepreneurs to seek resources necessary for new venture creation and new venture success. The authors categorise resources into 'complementary resources' and 'augmentary resources'. Both are necessary for new ventures, but each serves a different purpose. Moreover, closure arguments and structural holes provide resources in different manners.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; closure argument; structural holes argument; resource acquisition; social networks; entrepreneurial networks; network theory; new venture creation; new venture success; complementary resources; augmentary resources.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2016.078797

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2016 Vol.12 No.1, pp.19 - 31

Received: 09 Dec 2015
Accepted: 15 Mar 2016
Published online: 02 Sep 2016 *

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