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 54 5.2 Relationship between Venture Stages and Networking Actions The results relevant to Hypothesis 3 suggest that network broadening actions performed by newly established enterprises affect the innovativeness of opportunities more than network broadening actions performed by established enterprises do, and that network deepening actions performed by established enterprises affect the innovativeness of opportunities more than network deepening actions performed by new enterprises do. Thus, the results of this study indicate that the venture stage moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial networking actions and the innovativeness of opportunities, suggesting that different networking actions should be applied on the basis of the venture stage. When encountering survival challenges and high levels of uncertainty, new enterprises require many more connections than established enterprises do to procure new information and resources and, thus, overcome the liability of being new (Newbert et al., 2013; Stam et al., 2014; Sullivan and Ford, 2014). Therefore, network broadening actions exert a stronger effect on the innovativeness of opportunities than network deepening actions do. This finding is consistent with the results of Sullivan and Ford (2014). During the early stages of enterprise planning and establishment, large social networks facilitate the procurement of new information and opportunities. Studies indicate that organizations evolve and encounter new challenges over time (Slotte-Kock and Coviello, 2010). For example, the primary problem experienced by newly established enterprises is survival; therefore, these enterprises typically focus on concerns such as raising capital, research and development, and marketing and sales (Cooper, Gimeno-Gascon, and Woo, 1994; Koberg, Uhlenbruck, and Sarason, 1996). However, additional uncertainties emerge over time, changing the resource demands of enterprises (Delmar and Shane, 2004; Gartner, 1985). The results of this study indicate that network deepening actions affect the innovativeness of opportunities more when they were applied by established enterprises than when they were applied by new enterprises. Recent research has shown that entrepreneurs initially tend to search intensively for resources by forming many new ties, but only some of these ties are later transformed into strong ties (Stam et al., 2014). Social networks tend to increase in size, leading to an excess of new ties as enterprises enter the growth and stability stage. Therefore, long-term development and extended relationships are required for increased interaction and cooperation with existing ties to procure beneficial information.