Networking for business success Networks play a critical role in how entrepreneurs and innovators generate, elaborate, and implement new ideas. But how do they build the networks they need? And how can they best leverage the networks they already have? As Dr Anne ter Wal explains, the answer lies in shifting our attention from studying networks to studying networking. Entrepreneurs and innovators benefit from being part of rich and diverse networks among peers which give them the chance to share ideas, ask for advice and identify opportunities for novel products and technologies. As the Principal Investigator of an ERC-backed research programme at Imperial College in London, titled ‘Networking for Innovation’, Dr ter Wal and his team are investigating the importance of networking in entrepreneurship and innovation. “We think of networking as broadly having two main functions, one of which is around accessing input for new ideas and identifying opportunities. Network relationships affect the diversity of information that you have access to, which then feeds into creative processes,” he says. A second function of networking is related more to building influence. “Once you have identified an idea or a new opportunity, how do you bring that forward inside an organisation or how do you convince investors?” says Dr ter Wal.
Entrepreneurial eco-systems An important objective of Dr ter Wal’s research programme is to identify how
entrepreneurs can best take advantage of network opportunities in their local environment. “It is well established that entrepreneurs and innovators benefit from being part of a community, but it’s not so clear how they achieve that,” he says. A good example of the network challenges that entrepreneurs face relates to entrepreneurial ecosystems. Such ecosystems, for example London TechCity are rich in network opportunities, but it is
ter Wal says many budding entrepreneurs tend to find them quite frustrating. “They have lots of quite shallow conversations and don’t find what they were hoping to find,” he explains. “In one part of our programme, we observed the behaviour of participants at entrepreneurial networking events and interviewed TechCity-based entrepreneurs to try and understand how they seek to embed in the community of entrepreneurs inside the ecosystem and how this helps
It is the interplay between learned strategic networking actions and spontaneous organic ones that ultimately lead entrepreneurs to embed themselves in communities where they can bond with and learn from others. not obvious how entrepreneurs can make the most of them. Many start a company without any previous experience of running their own business, so have almost no connections in the ecosystem community to begin with. There are plentiful networking events in London designed to help entrepreneurs build relationships with people who can help them succeed, yet Dr
them identify new opportunities and bring them forward.” Beneath the surface of events and venues open to anyone, there are more selective groups, but it’s only by behaving in certain ways that entrepreneurs can discover that these selective environments exist and be invited to join. “Our research documents that process. There are both organic and more
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