Social capital to bridge the valley of death, simulating critical incidents in innovation

Arjen Verhoeff and Hanns Menzel

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011, vol. 14, issue 1, 149-169

Abstract: After start-up, an entrepreneur may enter the so called 'valley of death' the looming risk that the sales of the emerging venture is lagging behind expectations and that bankruptcy might thus result. We ask, in this paper, whether the entrepreneur can reduce the risk of the valley of death by building up his or her social capital, where social capital is viewed as a phenomenon with dynamic properties. More specific, several processes in established firms are identified which lead to social capital, being ideation, networking, routining, and learning. The authors present a framework to show that social capital can be enhanced via an interactive training approach based on critical incidents in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Empirical evidence is presented that demonstrates the value of simulation to prepare the entrepreneur to bridge this 'valley of death'.

Keywords: interactive simulation; entrepreneurial orientation; intrapreneurship; innovation; critical incidents; ideation; routining; networking; networks; valley of death; start-ups; sales expectations; emerging ventures; bankruptcy; risk reduction; dynamic properties; established firms; learning; interactive training; Holland; Netherlands; social capital; human capital; cultural capital; Europe; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs; entrepreneurship. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:14:y:2011:i:1:p:149-169

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