Women wanted : An exploratory study on female entrepreneurial networks in tech ventures

The ability to develop a diverse professional network is a crucial entrepreneurial competence in the venture creation. Relatively little attention has been paid to the network structure of female entrepreneurs in general, and even less on women entrepreneurs of tech ventures. Therefore, this thesis examines how the foundation of a business is influenced by the network structure of female tech entrepreneurs. Data collection was based on triangulation including semi-structured interviews and quantitative network analysis of seven German female tech entrepreneurs. Findings suggest that German female tech entrepreneurs display a diverse network, enabling the women to recognize opportunities, access resources and gain legitimacy through their network. Furthermore, it has been observed that families, as part of the network of female tech entrepreneurs, play a crucial role in opportunity recognition and resource allocation. Drawing upon this evidence, several propositions have been developed. Additionally, an own conceptual model has been established uniting for the first time network structure and family embeddedness within the venture creation process of female entrepreneurs. The thesis contributes in gathering new empirical data for academia and partially confirms recent research findings. Furthermore, the propositions and the developed model of the study point towards future research avenues.