Strong tie, weak tie and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: The theory and testing by Chinese entrepreneur data

Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition - the initial stage and key process of entrepreneurship- is valuable in the establishment of new venture. This article focuses on the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition based on strong tie and weak tie, and gives out the hypothesis testing by Chinese entrepreneur data. We find that the social capital of entrepreneur is mostly dependent on the degree of contact, confidence, support, common rules (on strong tie), information acquisition and relation transfer (on weak tie); both strong tie and weak tie have positive correlation with entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and more influence on strong tie than weak tie. Finally, we explain the different results based on Chinese entrepreneurial context.