Entrepreneurial Network Construction Research On Process Perspectives

As "the engine of economic growth", Entrepreneurship is the important driving force to promote technology development and social progress. However, how startups overcome survival problems and grow in the lack of resources and legality becomes the focus of entrepreneurship researches. Entrepreneurial networks, as the source of startups getting economic and social capital,do not only help startups overcome early survival difficulties, but also affect the entrepreneurs'behavior and decision-making during the entrepreneurial process. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial networks also present dynamics along with the development of startups. And the attributes of networks such as scale and density exhibit different characteristics in different stages of entrepreneurial processes. Therefore, exploring the causal relationship between entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial processes has the vital significance whether in entrepreneurial theory research or practice.First, this paper reviews the results of relevant researches and conclusions at home and abroad. Based on the comprehensive discussion about the relative basis theories, it also summarizes and contrasts perspectives of the network process research in the current entrepreneurship. Meanwhile,it points out various defects of current researches.Next, this paper attempts to explore entrepreneurial networks with an integrated view which references research achievements from researches of social networks and business networks. Researches are discussed from two parts: first, depending on the networks as the independent variable and focusing on the social mechanisms which impact the entrepreneurial processes through networks; second, depending on the networks as the dependent variable and focusing on how entrepreneurial networks are formed by entrepreneur and how entrepreneurial networks change along with the development of entrepreneurship. Thus, attempt to open the black box of the causal relationships between entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial processes.Finally, based on the previous research achievements, this paper puts forward an integrated view of entrepreneurial networks and constructs a three-dimensional model to analyze entrepreneurial networking processes. And it also uses a case to demonstrate the general disciplines which the model reveals. In the end, it points out the deficiency of this research and the possible direction of future researches.