1. Why do people have more weak ties than strong ties?

What are strong ties? People one can depend on, strong emotional bond.

What are weak ties? People who one may or may not be able to depend on, more uncertainty, less emotional bonding.

Why more weak than strong ties, then? One has to spend more time on strong ties than weak ties. They require more maintenance through visits, phone calls, and outings. As one meets new people, one has to decide if they will drop existing strong ties to allow room for new strong ties.

2. Give an example of an entrepreneurial broker role.

A real estate agent: mediates between the buyer and the seller.

From the reading, Jeremy Barbera and his direct marketing company that arranged a relationship between American express and the New York City Ballet.

Why are brokers so prevalent in modern society? Brokers economize resources by saving search costs.

One can trust a relationship arranged by a broker more than one of strangers because the broker has vouched for the persons.

3. Copying and imitation rules:

a. Frequency: copy what is most common,what the majority of the businesses are.

b. Trait: copy what has the most status, the best of an industry.

c. Outcome: copy what is most successful or profitable.

4. Does the rule followed make a difference?

If you use the frequency rule, you might run into trouble brought about by excessive competition.

If you use the outcome rule, you might not be able to know what factors brought about success and therefore you could not reproduce the success.

If you use the trait rule, the technology required may be too expensive.

5. Do women entrepreneurs use networks differently than men? Evidence?

Not overall, but there are a few important differences.

The biggest difference has to do with the use of strong ties. Nearly all of men's strong ties are men. Whereas, most of women's strong ties are men but many are women.

Both men and women primarily use weak ties.

They do not use their ties differently. Maybe the nature of starting a business precludes the development of gender differences.

Men and women are equally aggressive in seeking information through networking.

Future: When more women are CEOs, lawyers, accountants, engineering specialists, etc, they will be used as sources of information for nascent entrepreneurs.

Was John Morse's Methodology Effective?

Yes: looked in the right places, had good information, good research, interviews gave insight into what others were doing and eliminated things he did not want to do, organized (Exhibits 2 and 7).

No: information overload, overwhelming, no preference, spent too much time, no risk-taking, became turned off too easily, no plan for which to follow through, needed to focus on one industry, didn't narrow his search, kept pursuing things even though he had eliminated them, not inspired/driven, too systematic, not personal, no experience or expertise in the selected businesses, the research was ineffective without an idea.

John Morse DID start an ice cream business!

He went with his gut feeling and passion. But, he felt that his systematic rational research did him some good.

General point: People who are most active either start their organization or fail. Those who are wishy-washy and only do extensive research are in limbo and do not start a fledging organization

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