The Study Of The Impact Of Social Network On Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification

Human exists in social organizations, and there are also a variety of contacts between social organizations and the outside world, consisting of social networks. As a specific economic organization, enterprises inevitably have contacts with other nodes of social networks. It can complete the value chain activities, only when playing a role in the social networks.Because of the differences of strategies and resource requirements, new enterprises in different stages would have some changes in social networks, and so as to the identification of entrepreneurial opportunity. So development stage is an important factor affecting the identification of entrepreneurial opportunity.Based on the theory research of entrepreneurial social networks, resource acquisition and identification of entrepreneurial opportunity, we build up the model from social networks to its identification of entrepreneurial opportunity. Firstly, we analyze five new enterprises in different stages. Then, the paper carries on cross-case comparative analyses to comb the network theory by key events and pattern matching methods. Finally, we summarize the general laws between social networks and the identification of entrepreneurial opportunity. And we revise and improve the theoretical framework. The major conclusions are as follows:Firstly, for new enterprises, the three kinds of social networks have different effects on resource acquisition. Emotional networks mainly have an effect on the access to material resources, while business and supporting networks respectively have an effect on the access to business resources and administrative resources.Secondly, new enterprises in different stages would use different social networks. Startups mainly use emotional networks while the supporting networks assist. Survival enterprises mainly use emotional networks and business networks while the supporting networks assist. Growing enterprises mainly use business networks and supporting networks.The effect from the entrepreneurial social networks to its identification of entrepreneurial opportunity is intervened by resource acquisition. For startups, emotional networks have an effect on identification of market opportunity through the access to material resources. And material resources play an important role of safeguarding. During survival, entrepreneur knows the latest customer needs and updated technology knowledge through business networks, which helps the identification of market and technology opportunities. And material resources and business resources play an important role of guiding and supporting. During growth, supporting networks is the most important networks, where entrepreneurs can find valuable business resources and administrative resources. And that promotes the identification of market, technology and policy opportunities.