ORGANIZING NEW VENTURE SUPPORT IN REGIONAL NETWORKS: EXPLORING EVIDENCE FROM 'EXIST – ENTREPRENEURS FROM UNIVERSITIES' IN GERMANY

Abstract

New Venture Support Networks (NVSN) are a political instrument with the aim of improving coordination between private and public organizations involved in new venture support in a region. Cooperation between these organizations should improve the overall quality of new venture support and increase its transparency to potential entrepreneurs. However, achieving cooperation between organizations with heterogeneous interests is particularly difficult when the network has been initiated 'artificially' as part of a political programme. This paper examines the concept of NVSN theoretically focusing on network cooperation, and illustrates the concepts with empirical examples from exploratory interviews conducted in five NVSN established in 1998 in Germany within the government initiative 'EXIST – Entrepreneurs from Universities'. The preliminary conclusions suggest that there is a need for improvement and further investigation concerning the framework of rules and incentives set by the political programme, and the roles of certain key actors as 'motors' of self-organization in NVSN.

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