social network, prior working experience, start-up experience and access to support: the case of the Malaysian start-up industry

Abstract

It has been proven from the resource-based view that start-up entrepreneurs need access to resources through supports to find a successful venture. Many nascent entrepreneurs in many countries still lack access to considerable support. Start-ups that have no access to institutional support usually had a higher rate of failure compared to those who did. This paper intends to examine social network as a crucial contributor to getting access to start-up support in terms of technology, market, finance and soft-related support in the context of Malaysian start-up. This paper also intends to examine whether start-up owners’ working experience and start-up experience moderate the impact of the social network on access to support. This study employed PLS-SEM for analysing responses from 500 start-up firms in Malaysia. This study provides valuable implications while offering a new research direction towards developing an extended theory of social capital by linking social network to start-up support.