Social networks, entrepreneurial profile, and pathways

Abstract

This article focuses on the trajectory of entrepreneurs who rose from lower-income backgrounds and managed to make their mark in the business world. Its theoretical basis stems from literature on social networks and on embeddedness, associated with the literature based on the entrepreneur's profile. Its empirical evidence derives from an exploratory qualitative research, derived from multiple holistic case studies, conducted with two entrepreneurs in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The methodology included the proceeds from the longitudinal sociometry, which made possible the visualization of the network evolution and the identification of the key moments of transformation. On the one hand, the obtained results suggest that the development of these entrepreneurs happened due to a positive interaction between the resources made available by the social networks they managed to access and leverage as time went by and, on the other hand, the presence of certain personal attributes.