Community Social Capital and the Venture Gestation Process

Community social capital is increasingly recognized as an important regional resource for spurring entrepreneurial activity. A nascent but growing body of work has begun to link community social capital to entrepreneurship, focusing largely on outcomes such as rates of new venture creation. This chapter emphasizes ways in which community social capital can impact nascent entrepreneurship—namely, the activities founders undertake during the gestation phase before a new venture is created. It examines whether the types of activities undertaken by nascent entrepreneurs vary according to the prevalence (or absence) of community social capital within a region, and concludes with a research agenda for future work in this domain.