EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION IN NEW VENTURE SUPPORT NETWORKS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE ROLE OF PROMOTERS
Lambert T. Koch,
Marc Gruenhagen, Teemu Kautonen,
Wolfgang Kuhn, and Patrick Sassmannshausen
University of Wuppertal
Principal Topic
New Venture Support Networks (NVSN) are founded by political initiative to bundle together different public and private sources of information and support for potential entrepreneurs. An important problem in such project networks are the initial “artificial” network relations which are often characterized by conflicts of interest between the different participants and the political initiators. A crucial network management task is thus to turn the initial “artificial” network into a “real” one. The promoter model analyzes barriers to cooperation and the organizational resources to overcome them. Three promoter roles represent the different resources: promoter by power, promoter by know-how and relationship promoter. This paper examines these roles and their different combinations (promoter structures) for the evolution of cooperation in NVSN.
Method
Our sample consists of case studies in five regional NVSN established in 1998 within the governmental initiative “EXIST—Entrepreneurs from Universities” in Germany. Each case study comprises three semi-structured interviews with potential promoters, which we had identified as such by the political initiators of “EXIST” in three “metainterviews.”
Results and Implications
The results emphasize the role of relationship promoters in NVSN. While promoters by power and know-how are needed occasionally, the social networks and communication skills of relationship promoters are required on a constant long-term basis for building trust-based network relations. The emergence and intensity of promoter roles can be fostered through external impulses. For example, the second round of government funding for the “EXIST” networks was subject to an external evaluation. Meeting the criteria, such as coordinating entrepreneurship education curricula or integrating external partners for additional funding, required intensive cooperation facilitated by promoters.
Besides presenting the first application of the promoter model in the context of NVSN, this study offers practical implications to the management of existing and future NVSN by analyzing how their effectiveness could be improved by an appropriate use of promoter structures.
CONTACT: Professor Lambert T. Koch, University of Wuppertal, Gaussstr. 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany; (T) +49-(202)-439-3982; (F) +49-(202)-439-2464; koch@wiwi.uni-wuppertal.de; www.wiwi.uni-wuppertal.de/koch
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