@phdthesis{Adegbile2018, author = {Adegbile, Abiodun Samuel}, title = {Linking Resource Mobilization Approaches and Performance in Entrepreneurial Ventures: A Social Network Perspective}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:521-opus4-3390}, school = {Europa-Universit{\"a}t Viadrina Frankfurt}, year = {2018}, abstract = {ENGLISH ABSTRACT This PhD dissertation examines the relationship between resource mobilization and new venture performance by presenting a thematic analysis and literature review of resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures and an empirical study in the context of Nigerian entrepreneurial ventures. The thematic analysis and literature review provide an inventory of the domain, and the integrative literature review identifies four main themes in the conceptual and empirical literature on resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures. The four themes reveal a) the embeddedness of resource mobilization in the organizing process of entrepreneurial ventures, b) the role of founders/managers in the resource mobilization process, c) the role of social networks in enhancing resource mobilization processes, and d) the focus on firm-level analysis with special emphasis on firm behavior regarding the processes, conditions, strategies, and activities associated with resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures. The thematic analysis and literature review contribute to advancing strategic entrepreneurship theories on resource mobilization by identifying the gaps in the literature and suggesting how they can be addressed in future research. They also contribute to the practice of strategic entrepreneurship research by showing that an increased understanding of resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures can be achieved by developing new theoretical foundations for research in entrepreneurship. The empirical study addresses the following research questions: What is the relationship between resource mobilization (approaches) and new venture performance? Under what conditions do resource mobilization approaches provide performance benefits to new ventures? To determine the relationship between resource mobilization and new venture performance, two resource mobilization approaches were examined—namely, optimization and bricolage. These are defined as the use of new and high-quality resources for a specific purpose and the use of existing resources for a new purpose, respectively. The effect of resource mobilization approaches on new venture performance is argued to be contingent upon network complementarity and network diversity. Using data from Nigerian ventures, the findings show that resource mobilization approaches have significant positive and negative impacts on new venture performance, while network complementarity and network diversity, as context variables, positively moderate these relationships. Overall, this dissertation offers several contributions to the strategic entrepreneurship literature and entrepreneurial network research by providing new directions for researchers to study optimization and bricolage from different viewpoints and offer suggestions for how optimization and bricolage can contribute to new venture performance. The dissertation also takes a step toward addressing the critique that conceptualizes entrepreneurs as nonstrategic actors and lends empirical support to the call to explore the moderating role of social networks in the organizing process of new ventures. Keywords: Resource mobilization, Bricolage, Optimization, Entrepreneurial ventures, Social networks, Nigeria, Quantitative data.}, language = {en} }