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.It mayhave the present date on the cover, but when analyzing the data one oftenfinds that it is several years old (take census data, for example).Hence, acarefully crafted network can prove invaluable in providing fresh and rele-vant information or perspectives on existing information that provideinsights into markets and opportunities.An entrepreneur needs to stayabreast with current information on the industry environment and thatincludes suppliers, customers, competitors, and others.However, an entre-preneur needs information from a wider perspective, at a macro level orbusiness system perspective.Again, their network will serve as an importantcomplement to newspapers, TV, and  googling the Internet.It may seemtrivial to mention this at all, but our experience is that many would-beentrepreneurs are poorly informed about vital issues in their business envi-ronment and fail to see the necessity for gathering information until it is toolate.Therefore, we argue that information needs necessitates and justifiesthe importance for an entrepreneur to create and, above all, nurture a broadrange of networks.NETWORKSThe network is emerging as the signature form of organization in the Information Age,just as bureaucracy stamped the Industrial Age, hierarchy controlled the AgriculturalEra, and the small group roamed in the Nomadic Era.3Entrepreneurs and Their World 25With the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web, along withother sophisticated information and communications technology (ICT)solutions during the 1990s, the word network became a commodity in man-agement parlance.The quote above is only one of them, but it does quitewell capture the state of  flabbergastedness many business people andresearchers were caught in only some ten years ago.Technology was chang-ing management if not revolutionizing it.Business was entering a new era,that of networks.Big businesses learned what small entrepreneurial firmswere practicing daily.At that time networking became a management issue,an unprecedented managerial challenge.Many consultants saw their busi-nesses flourishing.The above quote also nicely presents us with a model for the differentstages entrepreneurial firms may pass through in their development, or, aswill be explained here, the many forms in which they will exist simultane-ously.A small firm may seem like a small group roaming the wilderness, butat the same time it is building the necessary networks while trying to avoidcreating a bureaucracy or a hierarchy.Regardless of whether the firm is small or large, new or old, there are cer-tain minimum requirements for a network to be a business network of anyuse.Networks are not self-perpetuating, they need to be created and nur-tured.Any amount of ICT, no matter how sophisticated, will not alone makea network successful.A Web site does not make a network, nor is it made outof luck.As a bare necessity, networks require purpose, members, and links.4Members and links are physical, purpose and relationships are intangible orimaginary (Figure 2.3).FIGURE 2.3A Network Anatomy26 Entrepreneurship" Purpose is an expressed unifying aim and a set of values shared by the members." Members are those individuals and groups (can be firms) that contribute specificcapabilities to achieve a shared purpose." Links connect members through relationships, repetitive interaction, and physical ties.ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORKSWhile much of the knowledge of the entrepreneur can be classified as know-how, perhaps the most important part, and the hardest to quantify,is  know-who. The major factors distinguishing a successful entrepreneurfrom an unsuccessful one are the quality and vitality of their personal net-works.The fact that an entrepreneur is a member of a network is not key, butthe quality and vitality of the network are.It should be added that successfulentrepreneurs most likely belong to many networks that have been purpose-fully chosen, based on the purpose [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]