STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NETWORKING ACTIVITIES FOR BUSINESSES IN THE NORTH-EAST REGION OF ROMANIA

Abstract:

Social networks are increasingly important for entrepreneurs, as they can support the process of discovering valuable opportunities, especially for innovative businesses. Communication and cooperation between various stakeholders involved in the entrepreneurial environment have been considered essential in business relationships, and networking activities have the ability to mediate these two components. However, the interaction between relevant actors does not naturally arise, but rather they are actively organized by business support structures. We propose a model for analyzing social activities through a pilot study conducted among 10 business support structures in 5 counties in the North-East region of Romania. The findings of the study are commented with regards to two main hypotheses. Obtained results support the idea that networking activities are sufficiently promoted, but still insufficiently developed throughout the region, providing the necessary premises for a larger study, including a wider range of respondents and an improvement of the research tools used.

Keywords: networking, entrepreneurship, innovation, innovative company, start-up