Entrepreneurship is considered as a critical factor for the development of transition economies and currently attracts a growing body of research. Following a qualitative case-study research strategy, this paper is occupied with the emergence of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as a location of high-tech entrepreneurship in the country. While the legacy of the socialist past is part of Sofia reality, the entrepreneurs in the capital appear to make considerable efforts to overcome these barriers. Applying a social capital perspective I articulate the link between entrepreneurship growth and entrepreneurs’ social context. Internationalization from early stage of start-up development is perceived as the main growth path, which requires the entrepreneurs to accumulate new social relations. Adopting a process oriented analysis, I observe the shift in the social capital content and how start-ups can benefit from their pre-existing and emerging social relations. I contend that the acquisition of social capital by studied entrepreneurs has a specific added value for the studied companies as in this process they are required to adopt new norms and practices that are distinctive from those generally observed domestically. This process, however, poses certain concerns for start-ups’ survival prospects due to its high costs.

Geographic clusters of firms have been extensively studied in different bodies of literature, but little attention has been paid to the process of cluster formation and its determinants. While focusing on the effects of clusters on innovations and on the productivity of firms, the literature has neglected the agency of entrepreneurs in cluster emergence. This thesis aims to contribute to the literature on clusters by studying the role of personal networks and firm networks in three aspects of the emergence of clusters: 1) the early stages of formation; 2) the creation of business relations between firms; and 3) the creation of knowledge among clustered firms. The analysis was conducted using the biotechnology sector in four geographic regions of Chile as a case study. Data on firms was collected using in-depth interviews and a survey. The analysis of the data was carried out using content analysis, multilevel estimations and econometric analysis. The results reveal three main findings. First, the personal and business relations of entrepreneurs can determine the location decisions of firms. Second, personal relations are positively associated with the emergence of formal business relations between firms. Third, the number of personal and business connections a firm has positively affects its production of knowledge, measured as patent applications and scientific journals. These findings suggest that social networks within a cluster shape its emergence and development. The results also show that the different types of networks coexisting in a cluster - personal networks, business networks and research networks, among others - affect one another and determine the development of clusters. The implications of this research may be helpful for policy-makers, professional associations and cluster managers. Activities to foster personal interaction between members of a cluster and other key actors - universities, incubators, venture capital firms, government agencies, etc. - may generate collaborations between firms that would not otherwise emerge.

This study focuses on how entrepreneurs learn about international business opportunities and explores the factors that affect the way they do it. The main conclusion of the literature review was that current international entrepreneurship research is still under development and the topic of international entrepreneurial learning about business opportunities yet to receive widespread attention. In addition, entrepreneurs utilise different ways to learn about the opportunities. However, there is a lack of coherence among scholars on what learning strategies are exactly, how many of them exist, and how they should be defined and categorised (Kakkonen, 2010).The research strategy of this study is based on the mixed methods approach. The design is a two-phase, sequential mixed methods study, utilising a qualitative, followed by a quantitative phase (Creswell et al., 2003). The qualitative phase was split into two parts: QUAL1 and QUAL2. Each qualitative phase includes the analysis of interviews and focus group discussions (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998). In the quantitative phase, a web-based questionnaire was the chosen data collection tool (Cobanoglu et al., 2001; Sills and Song, 2002). The study was conducted on a sample of 178 high-tech entrepreneurs in Israel. The results show that international entrepreneurs learn strategically about business opportunities. They utilise different ways, means, and mechanisms to assist in the identification process of entrepreneurial opportunities. These processes can be considered as learning processes, and the way they are enacted can be termed as 'learning strategies'. Based on the findings of the qualitative phases (QUAL1, QUAL2) and prior studies, six learning strategies were identified as relevant to the process of opportunity identification. Furthermore, the quantitative phase showed that business ownership experience and entrepreneurial self-efficacy have a significant influence on prior knowledge on international arena. In addition, prior knowledge was found as the most significant factor, affecting the ways entrepreneurs learn about business opportunities, while the cognitive style was found to moderate the strength of the relationships between prior knowledge and the learning strategies. Social networking ties also had an impact on the ways entrepreneurs learn, however this influence is diverse, and its statistical significance depends on the specific learning strategy. The importance and contribution of the proposed study can be defined as follows: Firstly, the study can help to reveal the underlying logic of opportunity identification as a learning process. Secondly, combining different frameworks into a new conceptual model as has been done in this study, may establish a new outlook, and contribute to the progress of research into entrepreneurship. Thirdly, International entrepreneurs can also benefit from these elements by acknowledging that they have a battery of learning strategies, which are relevant to the opportunity identification process, and most importantly, they can be taught how to learn about an idea throughout the process of opportunity identification.