Community brokers: Their role in the formation and development of business ventures

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Abstract
Many regions in the UK require an increased supply of new firms if they are to promote economic growth. New firm formation occurs when motivated individuals with business ideas acquire skills and gain access to resources. However, in many instances the development of ideas and the marshalling of resources is best accomplished by groups of people rather than by individuals. In addition, it is increasingly recognized that the entrepreneurial role is unique and that planning cannot meet every contingency. Under these conditions networking skill becomes extremely important. It allows entrepreneurs to build up a collection of useful contacts who can assist in the generation of ideas, solving problems and acquiring resources. Given the particular importance of networking some authors recommend that autonomous entrepreneurs should be afforded assistance by community brokers to develop large and active personal contact networks. In this study, using a modified version of Aldrich et al (1986) questionnaire, the authors interviewed 65 managers of small business support agencies to see how active they were at networking and how effective they were in creating networks for the use of others. Results indicate that the support agencies are much more active networkers than a comparison group of 274 owner–managers and that they regard it as their duty to enhance the networking skills of owner–managers. Some suggestions for co–ordinating the work of enterprise supporters by means of networks are included in the paper.

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