Networking for Innovation: Anecdotal Evidences from a Large Sample Study of Innovative Enterprises

Abstract

Networks are very much part of entrepreneurs’ lives as they have to constantly interact with the environment for accessing vital resources. It is hence redundant to ask whether entrepreneurs network or not. More pertinent questions are: what is the nature of entrepreneurial networks and how effectively they are used for achieving enterprise objectives? This article tries to find answers to these questions in the specific context of innovative entrepreneurs. This is done through illustrations of anecdotal examples from published stories of 164 enterprises. It is observed that the high innovators score substantially high on networking activities compared to low innovators in terms of intensity, variety, breadth and effectiveness. The illustrations clearly portray how the high innovators use networking to achieve various enterprise objectives.