“Knitting Community: Human and Social Capital in the Transition to Entrepreneurship”, 2018-09 (; backlinks):
[PhD thesis version] The process by which individuals become entrepreneurs is often described as a decisive moment of transition, yet it necessarily involves a series of smaller steps. This study examines how human capital and social capital are accumulated and deployed in the earliest stages of the entrepreneurial transition in the setting of “user entrepreneurship”.
Using the unique dataset from Ravelry—the Facebook of knitters—I study why and how some knitters become designers.
I show that knitters who make the entrepreneurial transition are distinctive in that they have experience in fewer techniques and more product categories. I also show that this transition is facilitated by participation in offline social networks where knitters garner feedback and encouragement. Importantly, social and human capital appear to complement each other with social capital producing the greatest effect on the most skilled users.
Broader theoretical implications on user innovation, the role of social capital, and entrepreneurship research are discussed.