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Cited by 98Entrepreneurship Studies and InfluencesRegional Economics and Spatial AnalysisMigration, Ethnicity, and Economy

Social networks and the geography of entrepreneurship

Open access
Sorenson, Olav·2018·Small Business Economics
DOI 10.1007/s11187-018-0076-7
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Abstract

Social relationships play at least three important roles in entrepreneurship. They help to determine who sees entrepreneurship as an available and desirable career path. Entrepreneurs use their contacts to raise funds for and to recruit employees and partners to their ventures. Social relationships also influence where and when entrepreneurs want to spend their leisure time. Because of these factors, entrepreneurs tend to found their firms in the places that they live (and in the industries in which they have been employed). That, in turn, implies that industries will tend to become and remain concentrated in a small number of places, even when firms do not benefit from this clustering.

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  • Entrepreneurs base decisions such as where to start or grow their business not solely on economic factors but also social factors such as the amount of encouragement they get from family and friends.

    “In addition, personal relationships and networks also play a role, as entrepreneurs base decisions such as where to start or grow their business not solely on economic factors but also social factors such as the amount of encouragement they get from family and friends (Sorenson, 2018 ).”

    From Toward an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research Program (2022) · cites this paper as Sorenson, 2018

    Section 2.3, “As amenities” (page not provided), says entrepreneurs’ location choices reflect personal factors, especially proximity to family and friends, rather than business attractiveness alone. The cited passages do not say that the amount of encouragement from family and friends determines where entrepreneurs start or grow a business. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

  • Toward an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research Program

    Wurth, B., Stam, E., & Spigel, B. (2022) · Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice · doi:10.1177/1042258721998948 · Cited by 789 · see citing works

    “In addition, personal relationships and networks also play a role, as entrepreneurs base decisions such as where to start or grow their business not solely on economic factors but also social factors such as the amount of encouragement they get from family and friends (Sorenson, 2018 ).”

Authors
Sorenson, O.
Affiliations
Yale University (US)
Corresponding author
Sorenson, Olav
ORCID
Sorenson, Olav
Venue
Small Business Economics
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2018-07-05
Volume
51
Issue
3
Pages
527-537
ISSN
  • 0921-898X (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-0913
DOI
10.1007/s11187-018-0076-7
OpenAlex
W2874611851
Cited by
98
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
FWCI
8.05
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Small Business Economics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
Keywords
social networks, entrepreneurship, interpersonal relationships, entrepreneurial careers, venture financing, personnel selection, leisure, market concentration, spatial clustering, place-based entrepreneurship

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