Entrepreneurship as Networking - Mechanisms, Dynamics, Practices, and Strategies

In the world of business, who you know is usually more important than what you know. While most research highlights the personal characteristics and expertise important to business success, this book demonstrates that networking is the core of entrepreneurship. Both counterintuitive and powerful, this perspective reframes entrepreneurial action by placing networking at the center of the process. Traditionally, networks have been regarded as facilitators of business, but Tom Elfring, Kim Klyver, and Elco van Burg argue that networking is actually the basis of entrepreneurial action, and conversely, that entrepreneurial action is networking. In developing an "entrepreneurship as networking" model, the book addresses the persistent problems that plague the dominant "individual-opportunity" approach in entrepreneurship. They describe the key dynamics, mechanisms, and practices of entrepreneurship as networking, and point at fruitful networking strategies for entrepreneurs. Thus, the author