The process of early social relationship initiation within an entrepreneurial technological community in a micro city context

Clancy, Michelle (2024) The process of early social relationship initiation within an entrepreneurial technological community in a micro city context. Doctoral thesis, SETU Waterford.

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Abstract

For technological entrepreneurs, collaboration capabilities and access to networks which lead to the building of resources and sharing of tacit knowledge are crucial success factors, keeping them a step ahead of competition by bringing together diverse perspectives, skills and experiences to create innovative solutions to complex problems. Informal innovation communities and social relationships outside the workplace are considered crucial for technological innovation to emerge, with some of the more complex challenges within high-tech industries requiring innovative ideas from efficacious collaborative efforts that extend beyond formal contractual exchanges to ‘a sea of informal’ interactions, emerging from ongoing informal and non-premeditated relationships. This qualitative study investigates the process of dyadic social relationship initiation amongst a group of technological entrepreneurs in an Irish micro city from pre-interaction to the early social interactions which, if the relationship is successfully initiated, lay the groundwork for future collaboration and engagement. In the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) research tradition, the study considers a dyad a natural starting-point for network research as it represents a concrete and important level of business exchange. An action research methodology is employed, using local, in-person technology or ‘tech’ meetups as a point of entry to the community, semi-structured interviews to inductively explore the phenomenon, and grounded theory to analyse the data. Through the analytic lens of social exchange theory, the study develops a model of social relationship initiation amongst business actors and identifies ‘social comfort’, ‘prosocial enculturation’ and ‘social belonging’ as three inherent subprocesses, as actors move from the pre-interaction phase, before direct communication or engagement occurs, to nascent interpersonal interactions at informal, socially-situated events. A process-approach is taken to conceptualise the ‘social interaction space’ and its four metaphorical ‘rooms’ in which new relationships begin as dynamic and evolving environments impacted by human agency, environmental factors and temporal dimensions that facilitate interpersonal connections and foster community cohesion. The findings build on understanding of the processual and contextual dimensions of social relationship initiation amongst business actors and the conditions that impact initiation, offering new empirical evidence on how optimal conditions at informal, social events in urban environments are directly relevant and integral to the shaping of interactions and associated outcomes. The study proposes a new way of thinking about how nascent social bonds are shaped by environmental stimuli, societal circumstances, norms, cultural influences and affective factors. This has managerial implications for policy-makers in urban areas, particularly micro city environments, who are interested in supporting relationship initiation amongst business actors in new ways and developing innovation-focused communities and innovation initiatives within these communities.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Entrepreneurship
Departments or Groups:	*NONE OF THESE*
Divisions:	School of Business > Department of Management and Organization
Depositing User:	Derek Langford
Date Deposited:	21 Oct 2024 13:13
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2024 13:13
URI:	https://repository.wit.ie/id/eprint/7844

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