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Strategically Cultivate Mutually Beneficial Networks

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Underdog Entrepreneurs
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Abstract

This chapter helps marginalized and minority entrepreneurs directly address the network-related aspect of the outsider problem. It encourages them to actively develop and manage a large web of diverse and mutually beneficial relationships well beyond their own communities. Such networks may satisfy their need for a sense of belonging while increasing their exposure to innovation-enabling ideas or perspectives. These entrepreneurs can maintain ties with many acquaintances by joining and contributing to industry associations and social media platforms (i.e., LinkedIn and Twitter). In doing so, they can devote more of their limited time to relationships that provide valuable psychosocial and business-related benefits.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Aldrich and Fiol (1994); Jay Barney, “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage,” Journal of Management, vol. 17, no. 1 (1991), pp. 99–120; Gedajlovic et al. (2013); Zimmerman and Zeitz (2002).

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    Johanson and Vahlne (2009).

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    D. Charles Galunic and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, “Architectural Innovation and Modular Corporate Forms,” Academy of Management Journal, vol. 44, no. 6 (2001), pp. 1229–1249; Samina Karim and Aseem Kaul, “Structural Recombination and Innovation: Unlocking Intraorganizational Knowledge Synergy through Structural Change,” Organization Science, vol. 26, no. 2 (2014), pp. 439–455; Joseph A. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934).

  4. 4.

    Mark S. Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 78, no. 6 (1973), pp. 1360–1380.

  5. 5.

    Morten T. Hansen, “The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge Across Organization Subunits,” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 1 (1999), pp. 82–111; Zeki Ozdemir, Peter Moran, Xing Zhong and Martin J. Bliemel, “Reaching and Acquiring Valuable Resources: The Entrepreneur’s Use of Brokerage, Cohesion, and Embeddedness,” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 40, no. 1 (2016), pp. 49–79; Ray Reagans and Bill McEvily, “Network Structure and Knowledge Transfer: The Effects of Cohesion and Range,” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 2 (2003), pp. 240–267.

  6. 6.

    Balagopal Vissa, “Agency in Action: Entrepreneurs’ Networking Style and Initiation of Economic Exchange,” Organization Science, vol. 23, no. 2 (2012), pp. 492–510.

  7. 7.

    Claudia Smith, J. Brock Smith and Eleanor Shaw, “Embracing Digital Networks: Entrepreneurs’ Social Capital Online,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 32, no. 1 (2017), pp. 18–34.

  8. 8.

    Eileen Fischer and A. Rebecca Reuber, “Social Interaction via New Social Media: (How) Can Interactions on Twitter Affect Effectual Thinking and Behavior?” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 26, no. 1 (2011), pp. 1–18; Eileen Fischer and A. Rebecca Reuber, “Online Entrepreneurial Communication: Mitigating Uncertainty and Increasing Differentiation via Twitter,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 4 (2014), pp. 565–583.

  9. 9.

    Ozdemir et al. (2016).

  10. 10.

    Howard E. Aldrich and Phillip H. Kim, “Small Worlds, Infinite Possibilities? How Social Networks Affect Entrepreneurial Team Formation and Search,” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, vol. 1, no. 1–2 (2007), pp. 147–165.

  11. 11.

    Ozdemir et al. (2016); Neha Parikh Shah, Rob Cross and Daniel Z. Levin, “Performance Benefits from Providing Assistance in Networks: Relationships That Generate Learning,” Journal of Management, vol. 44, no. 2, 412–444.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    Fischer and Reuber (2011).

  14. 14.

    Ibid.

  15. 15.

    Ibid.

  16. 16.

    Fischer and Reuber (2014).

  17. 17.

    Lee and Jones (2008).

  18. 18.

    Smith et al. (2017).

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Correspondence to Horatio M. Morgan .

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Morgan, H.M. (2020). Strategically Cultivate Mutually Beneficial Networks. In: Underdog Entrepreneurs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20408-2_11

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