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Entrepreneurial teams’ social capital and funding acquisition
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Yang, Tsung-Han (2021) Entrepreneurial teams’ social capital and funding acquisition. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3728878
Abstract
Much research suggests that financial capital links to the likelihood of success in fledging firms. Scholars have argued that entrepreneurs are expected to benefit from their network relationships while seeking funding. However, prior research has presented conflicting results thus far in terms of addressing the association between entrepreneurs’ network structure and their funding acquisition outcomes. I conjecture that the inconclusive debates are due to the paucity of attention at the team-level perspective, where focusing on individual entrepreneurs who may be part of a team could introduce bias in terms of our understanding of the social capital perspective in entrepreneurship. This thesis thus aims to ascertain the impact of entrepreneurial teams’ external social network structure on the outcome of receiving financial capital support through the integration of the structural hole and upper echelons perspectives. I first argue that an entrepreneurial team as an ego arching over many non-redundant ties (i.e. brokering many structural holes) will enjoy superior external funding injection into the start-up. Further, I contend that the brokerage advantage of a team’s structural network is not homogenous, and will be altered by the new venture team’s demographies. To address these arguments, I assemble a unique longitudinal dataset through drawing data from the Crunchbase database and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Based on a sample of 3,083 U.S. start-ups founded between 2009 and 2013, I find that the entrepreneurial team’s external network nonredundancy significantly provides a positive impact for new ventures in terms of obtaining funding, as well as the funding amount. Furthermore, I identify team tenure and heterogeneity of education as important contingency factors that negatively and significantly shape the relationship between network nonredundancy and the fundraising outcomes. In contrast, I do not find that industry experience, founding experience, or gender diversity can significantly moderate the network nonredundancy and funding acquisition relationship. This thesis also discusses the theoretical contributions, implications for practice, and future research directions.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HG Finance |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Entrepreneurship, Business networks, Social capital (Sociology), Finance, Capital, New business enterprises | ||||
Official Date: | July 2021 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Nicolaou, Nicos ; Symeonidou, Noni | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xiv, 226 leaves : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
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