From lone inventor to entrepreneurial network

In a traditional perspective the entrepreneurship concerns the ability of the entrepreneur in discovering and exploiting business opportunities. This approach sheds light on the skills and competences of the entrepreneur, such as the bricolage, the alertness and the readiness abilities. In a wider perspective, the ability of the entrepreneur should be combined with the external environment and the sources generated in this latter, such as relationships. The interconnections of social relationships depict the outlining of a community that becomes a key point to improve the growth of a new venture. Shifting the attention from social to business relationships, the Industrial Network approach outlines how the actors have to relate to each other, over time, and in a number of dimensions to sustain the development of a new venture. In this context, the paper aims to investigate in which way the entrepreneurial network can influence the development of the entrepreneurial journey. Going more in depth, the paper analyzes the role of an innovative actor, the co-working centre, in discovering and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities for new ventures. In particular, the paper analyzes the relationships between a European network of co-working centres, and two Italian start ups located in two different Regions.