The role of trait emotional intelligence in predicting networking behavior.
| Autor | Torres-Coronas, Teresa |
1 Introduction
Brass, Galskiewicz, Greve and Tsai (2004) define a network as a set of actors and the set of ties representing some relationship, or lack thereof, between the actors. Social and professional networks have existed since society began. They provide spaces for people to interact and share personal and professional information and experiences. In face-to-face settings, networking spaces range from industry events to leisure activities. They both offer a chance to grow a social network in productive directions. With the development of the Internet, most professionals start to use sites such as Twitter or Facebook, for instance, to find professional opportunities. At the same time, those who want to connect with more business-related contacts turn to sites like Linkedln to develop professional relationships. Notwithstanding the site type (personal versus professional or online versus offline) businessrelated purposes can be reached.
In the business world, a network usually involves contacts with a variety of colleagues for the purpose of mutual work benefits and they are important for accomplishing tasks and professional development (Linehan & Scullion, 2008). Thus, professional networks include contacts in different categories: professionals of the same industry, professionals of other industries, suppliers, customers, financial institutions, governmental institutions, competitors and other companies' partners. These relationships take considerable effort and time to establish and sustain (Sowon, 2013); therefore, it is important to confirm which factors can have a positive and certain impact on successful networking strategies.
Entrepreneurship research has frequently examined the value of professional networks, and how such networks develop (Anderson, Dodd, & Jack, 2008, 2010). Start-ups require a myriad of resources, from information to capital. For that reason, entrepreneurs form ties with outside entities to get access to critical resources. Such ties form the entrepreneur's "social capital", or the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from a relationship network (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). These networks give entrepreneurs access to other's information, advice, influence, and resources that are not available via market transactions (Hoang & Antoncic, 2003; Ostgaard & Birley, 1994). It can also help the company to achieve economies of scale (Mancinelli & Mazzanti, 2008). Thus, managerial implications relate to the fact that networking is a key asset for the competitive advantage of a company, business survival, growth and return on equity (Mitrega, Forkmann, Ramos, & Henneberg, 2012; Watson, 2007). Despite this evidence, some findings indicate that the business advantages of networking are still undervalued (Bennett, Owers, Pitt, & Tucker 2010) and that, sometimes, networking does not lead to anticipated outcomes as relationship might fail to develop (Sowon, 2013).
Given that entrepreneurial behavior is a function of individual differences, personality and ability factors should predict entrepreneurial activity and success (Zhao & Seibert, 2006). In parallel, researchers study the role of networking in supporting entrepreneurial success (Lechner, Dowling, & Welpe, 2006). But, what does networking behavior explain? Authors such as Treadway, Breland, Adams, Duke and Williams (2010) suggest that socioeconomic and managerial status could explain an important part of the levels of networking behavior, but other factors also come into play, such as skill and motivation, which need to be considered, as they operate interactively and assess the interactive impact of political skill (the ability to interact effectively with others). In addition, their findings indicate that, in general, individuals with a high politicallyskill level would find networking behaviors less difficult and more rewarding.
Other authors found that networking behavior is influenced by personality dimensions (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience) (Muscanell & Guadagno, 2012; Wolff & Kim, 2012). While Correa, Hinsley and Gil de Zuniga (2010) correlate individuals' personality traits and emotional stability with the use of networks. Given the social nature of networking activities, trait EI (TEI), conceptualized as a collection of emotional dispositions and selfperceptions located at the lower stratums of existing personality hierarchies (Petrides et ah,
2007), is an important factor for predicting networking behavior. As Chell and Baines (2000) demonstrate, the ability to effectively interact with other people is associated with a higher trait El (Chell & Baines, 2000). In a highly competitive economy, emotional and social intelligence lead to a shared vision and a dramatic increase in success, as illustrated by Boyatzis and Soler (2012). Moreover, successful entrepreneurs will be the ones who effectively manage their networks and build strong relationships (Bhattacharyya, 2010). Network's effectiveness increases when networking activities are planned (O'Donnell, 2004) or, in other words, when, entrepreneurs are proactive in networking.
To test the arguments presented above, an online survey was conducted to study the relation between entrepreneur's proactive networking behavior and Trait El. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short form (TEIQueSF), developed by Petrides (2001, 2009), was used to test hypotheses on the factors that define a proactive use of a professional network and their relationship with the individual level of trait emotional intelligence and its four components (well-being, self-control, emotionality and sociability).
In this regard, the article answers two key research questions: 1. How does trait emotional intelligence relate to the proactive networking behavior among entrepreneurs? 2. How can trait emotional intelligence act as a predictor of proactive networking behavior? To answer these questions the research methodology follows the fundamentals of trait El theory, based on Petrides (2001) and Petrides, Furnham and Mavroveli (2007). As a contribution, the paper lead us to a better understanding of the role trait El plays in an entrepreneur's network development process. A review of related studies is considered in section two. Section three presents the research methodology and study. And finally, findings, discussion and conclusion are presented.
2 Proactive Networking and Emotional Intelligence
2.1 Proactive networking behavior
In 2007 the European UniversityEnterprise Cooperation Network (Luca & David, 2007) investigated the way the three main stakeholders - academics, employers and graduates - view the training of entrepreneurial competences in practical placement. The three groups considered that the best achieved competences were the following: capacity to establish productive relationships, capacity to understand customers' needs and, ability to gain social capital--professional networking. Two out of three main competences are related to networking behavior. This means that this competence is a must-have for entrepreneurs.
Networking implies building personal and professional relationships to create a system of information, contact, and support that is crucial for personal and career success (Rasdi, Caravan, & Ismail, 2011). It can be understood as 'individuals', the attempts to develop and maintain relationships with others who have the potential to assist them in their work or career' (Forret & Dougherty, 2004, p. 420). It is a process of building up and maintaining informal, cooperative relationships in the expectation that this networking will assist job performance and career success (Van Emmerik, Euwema, Geschiere, & Schouten, 2006). These definitions understand networking as a proactive behavior, which involves developmental relationships for professional success (Kram, 1985). In the same way, Sowon (2013) conceptualizes networking as a process that involves proactive behavior, where proactivity is needed in order to build useful relationships.
In the field of entrepreneurial research, the value of networks as part of the explanation for the entrepreneurial success is widely acknowledged (Bollingtoft, 2012; Tipu & Arain, 2011; Rothschild & Darr, 2005; Hite & Hesterly, 2001). According to Anderson et al. (2008, p. 125), networks "contribute to entrepreneurial capacity by extending the individual's asset base of human, social, market, financial and technical capacity". Formal and informal networks are crucial in an entrepreneurial environment (Rothschild & Darr, 2005); though most entrepreneurs are not aware of the value of their networks for their business (De Klerk & Saayman, 2012).
The level of proactivity that an entrepreneur adopts in networking can be positioned along a continuum from "reactive" to "proactive" (O'Donnell, 2004). As O'Donnell (2004, p. 212) states "an owner-manager will be "proactive" in networking with a particular network actor if he networks with the actor in a planned and deliberate way, has keen expectations of the benefits of networking and regularly creates opportunities to network with the actor." Networking with a view to developing strong ties requires a proactive behavior. Hulsink and Elfring (2007) examine how entrepreneurs shape their network of strong and weak ties to match a new venture's changing requirements over time.
In a parallel way, professional networking based on the Internet is helping increase the size of potential networks. Moreover, the structural characteristics of digital technology allow the establishment of numerous self-perpetuating connections (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011). At this respect, professional networking on the Net is increasing to support professional network development. Thus, both virtual and face-to-face networks must be emphasized as key factors for a successful development of any entrepreneurial activity.
Proactive networking...
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