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Social entrepreneurs' personal network, resource bricolage and relation strength

Zhen Liu (School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Shandong University, Qingdao, China)
Yingzhao Xiao (College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China)
Shiyao Jiang (Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China)
Shuang Hu (School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Shandong University, Qingdao, China)

Management Decision

ISSN: 0025-1747

Article publication date: 17 April 2020

Issue publication date: 29 October 2021

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Abstract

Purpose

This study proposes personal network of social entrepreneurs as a key antecedent factor of their resource bricolage to understand the mechanisms underlying social entrepreneurial practices before the founding of social enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical study is used to collect and analyze data. The questionnaire data are drawn from in-depth semistructured interviews with Chinese social entrepreneurs. This study develops a theoretical framework that draws upon two dimensions of social capital, namely, “ownership” and “use,” to explore relationships among personal network, resource bricolage and relation strength.

Findings

With data from 227 social enterprises in China, empirical results suggest that personal network of social entrepreneurs, that is, the “owned” social capital, shall be transformed by the intermediate role of resource bricolage into relation strength, that is, the “used” social capital. The relationship between resource bricolage and relation strength is positively moderated by the marketization degree and social class of social entrepreneurs.

Research limitations/implications

This study introduces resource bricolage into the front-end course of social entrepreneurship. The results show that similar personal network can lead to different behavioral outcomes in the context of social entrepreneurship. Then the integration of resources and opportunities at the beginning of the social entrepreneurial process opens new avenues for future research. However, this study only investigates the transformation from network to resources implemented by social entrepreneurs before organization establishment. It does not explore potential outcomes of such a transformation for the development of social enterprises.

Practical implications

Social entrepreneurs at the prefounding stage shall make use of the values of available resources, fully use potential interpersonal relations in the personal network, and transform these relations into a close, steady relationship to realize potential values of available resources. Social entrepreneurs can start from excavation and foundation laying of strong relation networks, to avoid problems in legality, social awareness and failure risks generated from blind integration of external resources.

Originality/value

This study finds that social entrepreneurship exists between the motivation of the social entrepreneur and the establishment of the organization after the development over time. Creating first a phased result through the resource bricolage is necessary. This result establishes a complete process chain of social entrepreneurship from motivation to behavior, next to organization establishment and subsequent development. This study is an empirical test based on the theoretical interpretation to make a positive effect on the social entrepreneurship research in the theoretical construction and testing of the deficiencies.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The papers form part of special section “Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Sharing Economy”, guest edited by Wenzhi Zheng, Jun Yang, Yenchun Jim Wu and Chunpei Lin.The authors would like to express sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers and the guest editors of the journal for their insightful and valuable comments that have substantially improved this paper. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71702085), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China (No. ZR2017BG021), and the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University (No. 2019GN100).

Citation

Liu, Z., Xiao, Y., Jiang, S. and Hu, S. (2021), "Social entrepreneurs' personal network, resource bricolage and relation strength", Management Decision, Vol. 59 No. 11, pp. 2774-2791. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2019-0674

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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