The myth of the self-made man

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to "develop knowledge on how entrepreneurs perceive their social network and behave within it . Previous studies have been done on the subject, revealing the importance of a social network, however considering the time elapsed since previous studies and the fact that they do not take into account social network sites, it becomes relevant to perform a new study based on available findings in the two areas. This is a qualitative study were the analysis is based on an extensive theoretical research and empirical data collected through an initial interview and in depth interviews with selected case companies. In order to explore "how do entrepreneurs themselves perceive the use of a social network, how do entrepreneurs use their social network and what factors do entrepreneurs deem to be crucial for initial success . The analysis showed that commonly used models to analyse social networks and entrepreneurship are still applicable, however they do not fully take into account the factor of social network sites and social online media in general. The authors therefore extended two commonly used models in order to account for this and by doing so create a more valid model for entrepreneurs to follow in order to evaluate their performance within and their adequate use of, their social networks.