Gender, self-employment and weak-tie networking through formal organizations

Aldrich and colleagues have used intensive study of samples of convenience in their research on social networking among female entrepreneurs. This means that several questions remain only partially answered. Foremost among these is the incidence of social networking itself, differences in the level of networking between female entrepreneurs and logical comparison groups - male entrepreneurs and female salaried managers, and that most networking theories are developed for strong–tie rather than weak–tie processes. Building on the conceptualizations of Aldrich and colleagues, we chose a secondary analysis approach to a neglected aspect of social networking, weak–tie network linkage in formal organizations, using a representative sample of American self–employed and salaried managers drawn from the General Social Survey (GSS). The results suggest that entrepreneurs' weak–tie network efforts are less than those of managers, with female entrepreneurs engaging in weak–tie networking less than salaried male managers. Explanations of why these results differ from studies by Aldrich and colleagues, and implications for future research, are given.