The Dark or Bright Side of Entrepreneurs' Social Capital: Effects on Creativity and Innovation

Abstract

Creativity and innovation phenomena, which are closely interrelated concepts with entrepreneurship, interact with entrepreneurs' social capital through their entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. Entrepreneurs' social capital can be influential in various ways in the creativity and innovation processes. Some studies focus on the benefits of social capital, while others focus on the current and potential negative consequences. The concepts of creativity, social capital and innovation in entrepreneurship and the relationships and connections between these variables constitute the subject of this study. All of the participants in the study were trained on entrepreneurship (511) and some of them (211) established their own business. The relational variables of the research are patent application and ownership of entrepreneur/entrepreneur candidates (as a concrete indicator of the innovation process); and independent variables are creative thinking disposition and social capital. While the social capital and creative thinking disposition levels of entrepreneurs are determined and measured by the scales, data regarding the ownership of industrial property rights (patents, utility models, etc.) are taken into consideration for innovation performance. According to the results of the analysis, it was observed that social capital had a positive effect on the creativity of entrepreneurs and innovation performance of enterprises.