The simulation model can be used as an additional approach to predict the growth of new ventures in a fixed network structure to explore the dynamics and impact of online social networks on the entrepreneurial process over time.
This dissertation provides a novel methodology to study entrepreneurship and online social networks. We suggest that online social network data can be used as behavioural data to study entrepreneurial processes. Furthermore, our simulation model can be used as an additional approach to predict the growth of new ventures in a fixed network structure. Using the simulation model we can also explore the dynamics and impact of online social networks on the entrepreneurial process over time. This study demonstrates that the online social network can be used to study various aspects of entrepreneurship, and it is thus worthy of further investigation in future research.