A Study of Network Blockages and Effective Entrepreneurial Strategies

Entrepreneurship research has examined the beneficial role that entrepreneurs’ social networks play in venture creation. We argue, however, that entrepreneurs’ social networks also generate unwanted flows which create blockages. We examine how entrepreneurs respond to these blockages using a qualitative research. Our study makes two contributions: i) it proposes a typology of social network blockages and ii) it identifies strategies to overcome the blockages. Our findings suggest that three strategies can be used to overcome network blockages: forging business partnerships, activation of enablers, and network transmutation. We discuss each strategy and develop propositions about entrepreneurs’ strategic responses to social network blockages.