An entrepreneur's social capital and performance: The role of access to information in the Argentinean case
Journal of Organizational Change Management
ISSN: 0953-4814
Article publication date: 24 August 2012
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of an entrepreneur's social capital on their access to information, and how such access improves the performance of their entrepreneurial project.
Design/methodology/approach
A structural equations model (SEM) is estimated and validated from a database including information from 282 Argentinean entrepreneurs who answered a questionnaire specifically designed for this research. The analysis of this model allowed the impact of dependent latent variables on the performance of the start‐up to be determined.
Findings
The performance of an entrepreneurial project depends on an entrepreneur's access to finance, markets and information. Specific dimensions of social capital facilitate access to these resources: the relational dimension facilitates access to information; the resources dimension makes access to finance easier; the structural dimension helps the entrepreneur to access markets.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is not large enough to analyze differences among specific types of entrepreneurial projects: for instance, the role of social capital in industrial and service entrepreneurship (activity sector), the differences between the federal capital, Buenos Aires, and the rest of the country (location), and between female and male entrepreneurs (gender).
Originality/value
The results help in understanding which dimensions of an entrepreneur's social capital facilitate access to information and how these specific dimensions enhance the performance of the project. Hence, this paper has managerial and policy implications for the generation of dynamic entrepreneurial projects capable of becoming development drivers.
Keywords
Citation
Fornoni, M., Arribas, I. and Vila, J.E. (2012), "An entrepreneur's social capital and performance: The role of access to information in the Argentinean case", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 682-698. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534811211254572
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited