Beyond anarchy and organization: entrepreneurs in contextual networks

Abstract

Three phenomena have dominated the interface joining research, management practice and public industrial policy during the 1980s: the revival of industrial districts, the creation of science parks and the promotion of corporatè entrepreneurship. As a contribution to the understanding of the potential of entrepreneurship in such close settings, in its «context’, a conceptual framework is presented that elaborates upon the functions of the context as an intermediary between the individual venture and the global environment. These organizing functions are represented by the personal networks of the entrepreneurs. Both business and social strands of network ties are identified in an operational model and applied to Swedish entrepreneurial contexts: an industrial district, a science park and a corporation. The network data are scrutinized through graph analysis, providing different structural features of the three empirical contexts. A contextual approach for economic development through small-scale venturing suggests that the context at large and its networks, not the individual venture, should be focused.