Background: The importance of supportive business networks has been widely acknowledged in the field of entrepreneurship. Due to the success of informal business networks, the same networking concept is frequently encouraged and applied by regional political authorities. However, when duplicating a certain networking approach in different settings, it is important to address motives and expectations of network actors and be aware of potentially arising threats. Purpose of the study: The purpose of the Master Thesis is to explore and broaden the understanding of the relationship between the two actors: entrepreneurs and policy-driven networks. The Master Thesis aims to provide a theoretical contribution to the field of entrepreneurship in identifying and describing main motives and expectations of both actors, when engaging in a mutual relationship. However, the Thesis will focus on a single actor’s perspective and the main emphasis of the research will be placed on a set of entrepreneurs and their behavior within the analyzed policy-driven network. Ultimately, main emerging challenges between the two actors will be identified and analyzed, as well as appropriate guidance to address it will be provided. Methodological framework: The qualitative research approach was chosen for the conducted study. A multiple case study was completed in the form eight semi- structured interviews with the anagerial levels of the analyzed policy-driven network and local entrepreneurs. Completion and findings: The conducted study reveals that it is a great challenge to implement a certain networking approach in a diverse context. The provided frameworks of entrepreneurship, networking and social embeddedness indicate that, when establishing a policy-driven network a considerable amount of attention should be devoted to main network actors – regional entrepreneurs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-110671 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Hägnemark, Johan, Vilkelyte, Monika |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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