Passing on the good vibes: Entrepreneurs’ social support

Abstract

This study investigates whether the emotional support individuals have available from their social network influences the likelihood that they in turn provide instrumental support to entrepreneurs they know: if they pass on the good vibes. Hypotheses are tested on a Danish data set consisting of individuals who know a nascent entrepreneur (N = 392). The article demonstrates how emotional support made available to individuals from their social network impacts the likelihood of them providing entrepreneurs with instrumental support. Furthermore, findings show how the relation between available emotional support and the provision of instrumental support depends on culturally defined norms associated with various role-relationships and gender. The study contributes to existing theory by changing the perspective from focusing only on differences in characteristics between entrepreneurs to how the individuals in entrepreneurs’ social networks differ in characteristics and how this affects their social support to entrepreneurs. Furthermore, a significant contribution is the demonstration of how the provision of social support to entrepreneurs is contingent on different role-relationships.