Positive and Negative Network Ties of Entrepreneurial Households in Sub-Saharan Africa – Drivers, Interplay and Consequences

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Julia Brennecke; Professorin Dr. Anja Faße; Professorin Dr. Christiana Weber
• Subject Area: Operations Management and Computer Science for Business Administration
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540584260

Social networks are of critical importance for entrepreneurs to access the resources that enable entrepreneurial activities. Such resources may be finances, information, but also social and emotional support. However, networks do not always and necessarily lead to resources and to positive consequences. Instead, network outcomes can be detrimental or even harmful in the long run. Similarly, the content of the ties that constitute a network may be negative; negative ties such as dislike or difficult working relationships increasingly attract the attention of management scholars but have so far been neglected in the entrepreneurship literature. Given the importance of networks for entrepreneurship, a holistic view that integrates entrepreneurs’ positive and negative network ties as well as positive and negative network consequences seems highly relevant. The aim of this research project is to provide this holistic view by examining positive and negative network ties of entrepreneurs, the resulting network structures, and the positive and negative consequences of network ties and structures, drawing on network theorizing and specifically social ledger theory. The context of our research project is Tanzania/Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In rural Tanzania, over 90% of households are engaged in a wide variety of entrepreneurial activities. The households face dynamic and complex challenges, such as weak or missing formal institutions and difficult climatic conditions. These challenges make social network support for entrepreneurial households all the more important. Our project addresses the following questions: How do living conditions and sociocultural factors - e.g., tribal traditions and religion - influence the networks of entrepreneurial households? How do positive and negative network ties and network structures overlap and influence each other? And how do different types of network ties and network structures influence entrepreneurial activities as well as financial and nonfinancial outcomes such as life satisfaction? Data on social networks (e.g., different types of positive and negative ties) as well sociocultural background and entrepreneurial activities will be collected as part of a survey of 820 households in six villages in the Morogoro and Dodoma regions. Our project makes multiple theoretical and empirical contributions to entrepreneurship and management literatures. By explicitly investigating negative relationships as well as positive and negative consequences of networks, we extend social ledger theory and provide a balanced view of social networks for entrepreneurship. We also account for life satisfaction, as an important but mostly overlooked consequence or networks and entrepreneurial activities in this context. With the contextual focus on SSA, the project also allows capturing the diversity of entrepreneurship across the globe and to promote "indigenous theorizing," showing how differences in context influence theory development.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Tanzania
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Luitfred Kissoly