臺大管理論叢 NTU Management Review VOL.30 NO.1

45 NTU Management Review Vol. 30 No. 1 Apr. 2020 Entrepreneurs from late-stage firms develop many types of ties in their industries. These entrepreneurs must use these ties to maintain interactions and obtain more exclusive or valuable information to recognize innovative opportunities (Koberg et al., 1996). Although enterprises in the growth and stability stage have already gradually expanded and determined their place in markets, this stability reduces their level of organizational innovation (Koberg et al., 1996; Mueller, 1972; Wu, Wang, Chen, and Pan, 2008). As organizations mature, entrepreneurs concurrently develop more complete social network relationships in their industries and, thus, engage in network deepening actions and maintain excellent interactions with their ties based on their existing network relationships to obtain information and resources. Wu et al. (2008) explores the competitiveness of the external networks of Taiwanese high-tech ventures that were in the growth stage and discovers that these enterprises require high levels of trust as they enter the stability stage to increase their intention to cooperate, which encourages competitiveness and enhances innovation. Consequently, ties developed through network deepening reflect long-term interaction and trust, which facilitate subsequent innovativeness of opportunities. This study proposes that the application of network deepening activities by entrepreneurs from established enterprises exerts a greater positive effect on the innovativeness of opportunities than by entrepreneurs from new enterprises (Hypothesis 3b). H3b: The positive effects of network deepening actions on the innovativeness of opportunities are greater among late-stage ventures than among early-stage ventures. Venture Stage ● Early-stage ● Later-stage Networking Actions ● Network broadening ● Network deepening Innovativeness of Opportunities H3a. b H1.2 Figure 1 Theoretical Framework