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

Entrepreneurial Networking Actions and Innovativeness of Opportunities: The Moderator Role of Venture Stage 46 3. Methodology 3.1 Study 1 The purpose of Study 1 is to generate contingency variables, which involve interviewing entrepreneurs on their network actions and the innovativeness of opportunities in various situations. The study interviews 20 Taiwanese ICT entrepreneurs on the networking actions taken during the new venture creation process. In order to capture a full range of network-related strategic actions, the participants include entrepreneurs of different experience levels. Each participant is a founder of an ICT company still currently operating in the market. Interviewees are asked to describe their actions and thoughts regarding social networking. The interview data are collected from each entrepreneur during an in-person meeting through recordings and note taking. The interviews have taken place between October 2010 and November 2011. The study begins with 60–90 minutes of semi- structured interviews, where the entrepreneurs describe how their networking actions contribute to the development of their individual businesses. Each interview begins with a discussion on the entrepreneur’s background and his or her entrepreneurial experience. To proceed, the entrepreneurs are asked a general question: “Did you network in your effort to start your business, and if so, for what reason?” Of the 20 participants, 90% are men and have an average age of 45 years old. On average, the participants have 17 years of full-time work experience, and the average age of their companies is 10 years. 3.1.1 Data Analysis Upon the review of the transcripts of all of the interviews, the analysis files are developed. Subsequently, this study identifies interview texts related to entrepreneurial network formation and actions. The coding process involves several steps. During the first-order analysis, the authors and two MBA students produce three sets of data by separately coding the interview data. This analysis process yields a data set of 77 codable statements related to networking actions, the innovativeness of opportunities, and venture stages. Each statement consists of a sentence or a sequence of sentences conveying a coherent point (Weber, 1990). During the second cycle of analysis, 18 first-order categories and four second-order themes and aggregate dimensions are also coded. Venture stages are identified to be highly related to the networking actions and the innovativeness of opportunities. 3.1.2 Study 1: Findings Entrepreneurship is a dynamic and discontinuous process of change which involves