Networking Ability and the Financial Performance of New Ventures: A Mediation Analysis among Younger and More Mature Firms
研究创业者社交能力如何通过影响企业网络规模和关系强度来提升新创企业财务绩效，且这种效应在年轻企业中更显著。
We hypothesize that entrepreneurs' networking ability—an individual‐level skill widely studied in career research—positively influences new ventures' financial performance. Additionally, we propose that this impact is mediated by new ventures' network characteristics and moderated by venture age. When testing our hypotheses based on a sample of 146 German entrepreneurs, we find them largely confirmed. Our results show a significant relationship between entrepreneurs' networking ability and their new ventures' financial performance, which is mediated by new ventures' network size and the strength of network relationships. Additionally, the relationships observed are salient for younger but not for more mature firms. Copyright © 2012 Strategic Management Society.