Entrepreneurial process and social networks : a dynamic perspective Entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a social process and creating a firm requires both the mobilization of social networks and the use of social capital. This book addresses the gap that exists between the need to take these factors into consideration and the understanding of how network relationships are developed and transformed across the venturing process. Expert contributions from key scholars in the field illustrate how social networks evolve across entrepreneurial stages using studies from different regions across the world. Offering a comprehensive understanding they emphasize the role of formal networks created inside professions and firms. Also examined is the impact of context including both family and internationally variable institutions that can help entrepreneurs to access resources and competencies useful for their projects. The book concludes by emphasizing the various research challenges: which theories are useful for our endeavours and which new methods can be used to understand the dynamics of the venturing process Dynamic and eminently practical this book will be invaluable to scholars and students studying the entrepreneurial process and the impact of social networks. It will also prove a useful tool in aiding entrepreneurs to optimize the development of their networks and better manage their entrepreneurial processes Introduction Alain Fayolle Sarah Jack Wadid Lamine and Didier Chabaud Part I the evolution of networks across entrepreneurial stages 1. Entrepreneurial network composition and the venture creation process: an empirical investigation Tammi Redd Michael A. Abebe and Sibin Wu 2. Dynamic social networks of entrepreneurs: five years of change in the networks of Dutch entrepreneurs Marianne De Beer Gerald Mollenhorst and Veronique Schutjens 3. Social networks of the entrepreneur and formation of business opportunities: an exploratory study Didier Chabaud and Joseph Ngijol 4. Start ups repositioning in business networks Lise Aaboen and Frida Lind Part II formal networks: a new research agenda 5. Business and professional networks: scope and outcomes in oxfordshire Helen Lawton Smith and Malika Virahsawmy 6. Women entrepreneurs and the process of networking as social exchange Claire M Leitch Richard T. Harrison and Frances M. Hill 7. Cooperation vs. coordination relations in SMEs network: a new view of collective strategy dynamics Christophe Leyronas and Stéphanie Loup Part III context: a benign neglect 8. The competitiveness of entrepreneurial firms from a network perspective Christian Lechner 9. The role of family members in entrepreneurial networks: beyond the boundaries of the family firm Alistair R. Anderson Sarah L. Jack and Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd 10. Network structures of nascent entrepreneurs: an exploratory study of advisor networks in mena countries Sarfraz Mian and Shahid Qureshi 11. Ubuntu in family businesses: a case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Albert B. R. Lwango Part IV debates and perspectives: theoretical challenges 12. Entrepreneurial mingling secrets: investigating the performance impact of network structure for control based entrepreneurship using agent based simulation Willem Jansen René Mauer and Malte Brettel 13. Entrepreneurial social network and actor network theory Wadid Lamine; Alain Fayolle and Hela Chebbi.