A Study On The Influences Of Entrepreneur’s Human Capital And Social Networks On Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification

With the transformation of society and rapid change of the global economicenvironment, entrepreneurial activities have played an increasingly important role inthe modem economy as a main source of employment and primary driver of economicgrowth. Therefore, how to effectively encourage entrepreneurship and promote newbusiness growth has been the academic and practical topic, in particular, whetherpersonal resources of entrepreneurs will affect the effective recognition ofentrepreneurial opportunities, are critical issues to explore. For this reason, this study isbased on human capital theory, social network theory and entrepreneurship theory, theindividual entrepreneurs are choosed as the research object, discuss the characteristicsof the entrepreneur’s human capital and social networks, and analysis their impactfrom each dimension on the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities. Then, builda theoretical model of the impact of entrepreneur’s human capital and social network toentrepreneurial opportunities identification.This study uses literature review and survey methods to set up theoretical modeland empirical analysis. First, through literature study, the author generalized that theentrepreneur’s human capital includes four dimensions, level of knowledge, functionalexperience, industry experience and entrepreneurial experience; the entrepreneur’ssocial network from the two dimensions of network size and network strength; theopportunity identification contains the two dimensions of profitability recognition andfeasibility recognition. Second, theoretical models are designed on the basis of theliterature research, questionnaire and large-scale surveys are carried out. Then, basedon the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, this study uses factor analysis,correlation and regression analysis to verify theoretical models and hypotheses bydeals with the data collected.The results of this study show that entrepreneurial human capital and socialnetworks have significant and positive effects on entrepreneurial opportunityrecognition. Entrepreneurs’ knowledge, industry experience and entrepreneurialexperience have positive signification effect both on the feasibility and profitabilityrecognition of entrepreneurial opportunities, but the impact of functional experience onopportunity identification has not been confirmed. From the perspective of social networks, the entrepreneurial network strength has a positive signification effect onboth the feasibility and profitability recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities, whilenetwork size only has positive and significant impact on feasibility recognition.Demographic variable analysis showed that there are significant differences betweenmale entrepreneur’s social network and female entrepreneur’s. The social network ofmale entrepreneurs is relatively stronger.Based on those above conclusions, targeted policies and proposals are provided inthis essay. Firstly, entrepreneurs should continue to enhance learning to upgrade theirknowledge of all aspects, accumulated entrepreneurial experience through participationin entrepreneurship training and combat simulation, and establish a business onfamiliar industries and fields. They also should expand the social scene, actively andregular interact with the relevant industry or other members to accumulate a wealth ofsocial capital. Secondly, specific programs and entrepreneurship education shouldsetted by colleges or other educational institutions, to train the entrepreneurial skills.Structures exchange platform with entrepreneur, which will lead entrepreneurs orpotential entrepreneurs to accumulate valuable social capital and improve the successrate of opportunities identified. Furthermore, the government should draw up targetedmeasures to fetch up the deficiencies of entrepreneur. Build platform entrepreneurs, toimprove feasibility of their business plan and promote entrepreneurial practices. Lastbut not least, other institutions which are closely related to the entrepreneurial activity,such as business incubator institutions、banks and venture capitalists, the conclusionsof this study will arouse them survey entrepreneur human capital and social networkcomprehensively to assess the entrepreneurial projects.