The breeding-ground hypothesis: social capital, entrepreneurial networks and local industrial clusters: an evolutionary view

Networks are solid parts of the economic environment. The network success hypothesis predicts a positive relation between the networking activities of entrepreneurs and their economic success (Witt 2004, see Burt 2000). Surprisingly, at first glance, empirical research on networks and clusters offers quiet varying answers to the question if and why networks or clusters influence the development of start-ups positively. The motivation behind this paper is the question if and how cognitive phenomena should be taken under consideration analysing entrepreneurial networks and clusters. Therefore a general model of the interplay between single entrepreneurs and their networks will be developed.