The influence of social network at the different stages of entrepreneurial firm development: Analysis of GEM data in Russia

The paper releases the results of the research, which is dedicated to the studying of the influence of social networks on the entrepreneurial process at different stages of business formation. On the literature review basis, were formed several hypothesizes, tested on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor database for Russia for the period from 2006 to 2008. To conduct the analysis the neural network mechanisms were used, that allows to estimate not only qualitative, but also quantitative impact of various factors on entrepreneurial process. The results have showed that social networks have greater influence on entrepreneurial activity at the stage of the firm creation and have less impact at the stage of business survival. Executive Summary is available at pp. 43.