ProfessorAnne ter Wal

My research is focused on the question how individuals can best build and mobilize their networks to achieve innovative success. Effective networking for innovation may often require individuals to build connections to people outside the usual groups of trusted friends and like-minded individuals they may be most naturally inclined to connect to. My research aims to inform how individuals go about building the connections they need and assess how different approaches to building and mobilizing these connections help individuals to innovate.

Entrepreneurs and innovators benefit from being part of rich and diverse networks, which give them the chance to share ideas, ask for advice and obtain support. In my research programme “Networking for Innovation”, funded by the European Research Council, I seek to better understand how entrepreneurs and innovators build and mobilise their social capital to achieve innovative outcomes.

Day-to-day decisions in how we relate to others – who we speak to over lunch at work, which professional events we attend, who we turn for advice on novel ideas – affect our social capital. Entrepreneurs and innovators in particular actively shape their professional networks to access key knowledge, capital, and other resources. Similarly, innovators at large corporations are aware of the crucial role played by social network resources in generating new ideas and gaining support to realise projects.

The "Networking for Innovation" programme aims to understand how the day-to-day decisions of innovators and entrepreneurs in building and leveraging their networks affects their ability to successfully pursue innovation. The project follows the idea that more successful entrepreneurs and innovators may not simply have better networks, their success could be down to more effective networking behaviour.