Entrepreneurs’ Networking Styles and Normative Underpinnings

Abstract

Existing network research has mainly adopted functional and structural approaches to study instrumental goals behind entrepreneurs’ networking and the influence of position on resource access and venturing performance. The variety of entrepreneurs’ networking styles and the normative underpinnings has been insufficiently explored. Contextualized this study in China, this paper asks: What are the entrepreneurs’ networking styles during the market-oriented transition? How does entrepreneurs’ understanding of social norms shape their networking styles? Through our inductive comparison, we identify three networking styles: guanxi-oriented networking, market-based networking, and mixed networking. We theorizing three types of social norms in shaping these styles: market inferred norms, dyadically formed norms, and identity induced norms. Our exploratory study provides new insights in understanding Chinese entrepreneurs’ distinctive networking styles and their normative underpinnings. Our study further offers implications for studying entrepreneurs’ networking behaviors in transitional economies.