Constructing Entrepreneurial Networks: Evidence from a Mentoring Program

Abstract

Entrepreneurs’ social networks are important for explaining why some entrepreneurs are successful when so many others fail. While researchers have identified many impacts of entrepreneurs’ positions in social networks, important questions remain regarding how entrepreneurs’ networks come to be. In this dissertation, I study how entrepreneurs construct social networks using a U.S. accelerator’s mentoring program as a strategic research site. In the first essay, I use an experiment to study how entrepreneurs can be successfully matched to mentors. Even though every entrepreneur had access to the same mentors, different matching processes led some entrepreneurs to form longer-lasting and more beneficial connections than others. This was driven by matching those entrepreneurs to mentors who were better fits for their needs rather than higher quality mentors. These results suggest that how entrepreneurs are matched to advisors can affect a network intervention’s effectiveness and that connecting with advisors who can offer particular, localized help is a more salient friction for entrepreneurs than accessing advisors in general. The second essay examines why entrepreneurs form homophilous social networks. While no evidence indicates that entrepreneurs disproportionately initiate homophilous relationships, homophilous relationships are more likely to be maintained, leading to homophilous networks over time and indicating that homophilous relationships are more beneficial to entrepreneurs. This pattern is imbalanced by gender. Men mentors are disproportionately supportive of male entrepreneurs, leading to inequality by gender in referral attainment. Together, these results indicate that match between an entrepreneur and each of their particular contacts is crucial, and that the process of selecting particular relationships affects which entrepreneurs have productive networks.