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 56 6.1 Implications This study has the following theoretical implications. First, on the basis of recent social network research, from an active perspective, this study investigates how entrepreneurs engage in social networking actions rather than examines the effects of network structures and content. Thus, the findings of this study address the research gaps that are related to this topic. Second, the studies verify that social networking significantly and positively influences opportunities. This study reveals that engaging in network broadening actions increase the innovativeness of opportunities. Future studies should verify various dependent variables (e.g., enterprise performance and resource acquisition) (Newbert et al., 2013) to explore the effects that they exert on various social networking actions. Third, this study uses a two-stage research method to determine that venture stages exert a critical moderating effect on the relationship between networking actions and the innovativeness of opportunities. This moderating effect occurs because social networking is highly correlated with time and situational variables. As entrepreneurs evolve with time, they constantly adjust their social network structures and strategies, changing their actions in response to situations (Newbert et al., 2013; Stam et al., 2014). This result is consistent with suggestions proposed by Vissa (2012) and Sullivan and Marvel (2011), who after investigating the effects of venture stages, recommend that future studies examine venture stages to clarify the implications of social networking action performed by entrepreneurs. The results of this study have practical implications. Timmons (1999) states that entrepreneurs must both undertake new ventures to continually discover new opportunities in a constantly changing external environment and adjust organizational resources and operating strategies to gain a foundation in fluctuating markets. Discovering and developing innovative opportunities are challenging and cannot be accomplished by one person. In addition, the resources and abilities of new entrepreneurs are limited. Thus, these entrepreneurs tend to withdraw from markets when they encounter challenges or lack external assistance. This study suggests that entrepreneurs should establish new network relationships during the early venture stage to expand their perspectives and examine new ties for cooperation opportunities. However, expanding networks requires spending large amounts of time on social interaction and networking activities. Entrepreneurs should carefully select relevant social activities rather than indiscriminately establish relationships, which may lead to overlooking the core development of their businesses (Sullivan and Marvel, 2011).