Entrepreneurship research in practice: Methodological issues

LOK Conference Kolding, 2-3 December 2002

Entrepreneurship research in practice: Methodological issues1 Patrizia V. Christensen, Henning Madsen, Helle Neergaard2 Abstract: This paper presents and discusses the methodology applied in the LOK Project 3.1 called Social Networks and Entrepreneurship (SNE), which focuses on the development process of high-tech and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial ventures in Denmark. The project uses a complex research methodology and design applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods in a longitudinal perspective. The quantitative part of the investigation uses a web-based questionnaire, while the qualitative part consists of in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Following the account of the research methodology and design adopted, particularly stressing the selection of the firms and the problems emerging during the investigation, the authors elucidate and critically discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. On the basis of the experience obtained, suggestions are offered about how to conduct effective and dynamic research in entrepreneurship and new business development.

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This is a work in progress. Please, contact the authors previously to quoting/citing. The authors would like to thank Berit Jensen for her skilful language revision of the paper.

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Introduction In recent years, interest in entrepreneurship research has rapidly increased due to the recognition of its relevance for a country’s economic growth and international competitiveness (OECD; Birch 1981; Reynolds and White 1996). However, as highlighted by (Chandler and Lyon 2001), a simple literature review can immediately highlight a number of serious deficiencies affecting most existing empirical research. First of all, the biggest part of published research concerns US-based cases. Secondly, larger-scale projects are generally highly structured, based on one-shot investigations and focused on only few specific issues. For this reason, while they represent useful investigations of certain sub-themes in entrepreneurship research, these studies are generally unable to cast light on the overall process of establishment and early growth of entrepreneurial firms. Qualitative researches might be better suited for this purpose, and a recent focus on qualitative methods in entrepreneurship testifies a new awareness of its advantages (Gartner and Birley 2002). Nonetheless, existing qualitative studies tend to forget the importance of a thorough sampling of the cases, therefore offering interesting but non-generalizable results (Neergaard in progress). This paper introduces the methodology used in the Social Network and Entrepreneurship research project (SNE) and discusses its advantages and disadvantages, describing difficulties and problems which emerged during its various phases of development3. The SNE project focuses on a European case; it is a large-scale project covering a representative sample of the relevant population, longitudinal in nature, and combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. The qualitative part of the research is based on a thorough selection of cases. To start with, the SNE project investigates the establishment and first growth phase of the selected firms, focusing on all the founding entrepreneurs and their characteristics. Only high-tech and knowledge-based companies were included in the sample. Specifically, the firms included are active in the following sectors: information and communication technology (ICT), biotechnology and life sciences. The quantitative part of the SNE

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Updated information about the SNE project can be found at the following Internet address: www.org.hha.dk/org/lok

2

project

has

been

conducted

utilizing

web-based

questionnaires.

Web-based

questionnaires are powerful tools, widely diffused in marketing research, but still not commonly used in social science research. For this reason, the SNE project can contribute with its pioneering experience to diffusing an important practical lessons in the research community. In particular, the experience gathered during the two first years that the SNE project has been running until now allows the authors to discuss concrete suggestions about how to improve research methodology in the study of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. The paper is organized as follows. In the first paragraph, the general structure of the research is introduced. In the second paragraph, the selection process of the cases included in respectively the quantitative and qualitative parts of the research is described. In the third paragraph, the experience with the web surveys is introduced and discussed. In the fourth paragraph, the qualitative data collection and its organization are illustrated. To bring to a close, problems and open issues that have arisen from the research are presented and, in the conclusion, suggestions as to how effective research is conducted in entrepreneurship are offered. 1. Structure and objectives of the SNE project The SNE project is a longitudinal research project aiming at investigating the establishment and first growth phases of new ventures in high-tech and knowledge-based sectors in Denmark. The scope of the research is broad, even though precise research hypotheses have been formulated (Christensen, Ulhøi et al. 2000) and, partly, tested (Christensen et al. 2001). For this reason, both qualitative and quantitative data collections have been organized in two waves. In both cases, the idea was that qualitative data collections should precede the quantitative ones and be used, on the one hand, to offer a descriptive picture of the issues of interest, thereby supporting the ongoing formulation of working hypotheses based on existing theories and literature and, on the other hand, to investigate in a more detailed way specific topics and to analyze patterns of relations between individual members of the entrepreneurial teams. This was realized in the second wave while during the first wave, the two researches have overlapped due to

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the difficulties encountered in the sampling procedure. During the first round of in-depth interviews, all members of the entrepreneurial teams of the 24 selected firms were interviewed, singularly and in groups. Similarly, the first quantitative data collection addressed more than one of the founders of the sampled ventures – including those that took part in the interviews. Focus has been placed on all the ventures’ founders, due to an interest in the entrepreneurs as such and in their values, attitudes and personal conditions. In fact, in the literature, these characteristics of business founders are considered to be important determinants of the successful establishment of a business (Begley and Boyd 1987; Gartner 1989; Reynolds 1991; Deakins 1996; Reynolds and White 1996; Beyers, Kist et al. 1998; Thornton 1999; Delmar and Davidsson 2000). However, as the personal characteristics of the entrepreneurs do not seem to affect the further development and growth of entrepreneurial ventures to the same extent as is the case in the establishment phase, the second data collection wave has mainly concentrated on one of the founders (with a few exceptions). Where possible, the leading or alpha entrepreneurs were included in the second wave (Ensley et al. 2000; Neergaard 2002). In conclusion, the SNE project has worked at two levels: the individual and the company level. Entrepreneurship as a process has, therefore, been considered both from the point of view of the entrepreneurs and from that of the emerging organizations. This approach is innovative and valuable since it allows the researchers to look at the interplay between micro- and macro-level phenomena, including individual, social and organizational variables. The data collections have been organized as follows: 1)

first qualitative data collection: 05.01.2001-22.08.2001

2)

first quantitative data collection: 18.01.2001-01.06.2001

3)

second qualitative data collection: 25.07.2002-07.11.2002

4)

second quantitative data collection: 28.10.2002-04.12.2002

The qualitative data collections have consisted of in-depth interviews with the founders of 24 new ventures in high-tech and knowledge-based sectors in Denmark (25 in the second wave), whereas the quantitative data collections have taken the form of

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web-based surveys administered to a representative sample of entrepreneurs in the same sectors. Preliminary to the data collections and to render possible the selection of the cases, a thorough gathering of information on firms created during the years 1996-2000 in the targeted sectors has been performed, with the use of official databases, web pages and other available documents (journal articles and the like). Additional information has been gathered about all the firms included in the qualitative analysis after their selection. Concurrent with the last quantitative data collection, yearly reports and budgets of all the years of existence of all the firms involved in both the qualitative and the quantitative parts of the research have been acquired from the responsible public authority to allow for a more detailed analysis of economic growth and financing patterns. Based on the above, it can be affirmed that the SNE project is truly based on a mix and triangulation of research methods (Denzin 1978; Jick 1979; Smith, Gannon et al. 1989). As to the number of participants in the various SNE research phases, during the first qualitative investigation, 58 interviews were conducted in 24 companies; during the first quantitative wave, 181 persons from 123 companies were contacted, and of these 83 persons from 59 firms participated; during the second qualitative wave, 27 interviews were carried out in 25 companies; and, finally, during the second quantitative wave, 154 persons from 130 companies were contacted. Since the second quantitative data collection is currently running, the final number of participants is still unknown (on the 14th of November 2002, the count was 78). During the second wave, the same subjects and firms have been contacted as in the first wave, plus some replacements. Response rates are satisfactory compared to similar researches and population types (e.g. entrepreneurs).

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2. The selection of cases 2.1 Quantitative At an early stage of the SNE project, it was decided to collect quantitative information utilizing a structured questionnaire in order to establish the basis for a generalizable description of the situation within start-ups in the high-tech and knowledgebased sectors in Denmark. The selection of the firms which were supposed to participate in the project was accomplished on the basis of four main criteria, formulated in the light of the overall purpose of the SNE project: The type of business sector, in which the companies were mainly active, e.g. companies in high-tech and knowledge-intensive sectors. In the survey, all companies were categorized as being either ICT (information and communication technology) or biotechnological companies. Age of the firms. All firms included in the survey had to have been established after 1995, i.e. within the last 4-5 years before the administration of the first questionnaire. The regional distribution of the firms. Firms should represent businesses established in all parts of Denmark (the peninsula of Jutland, the islands of Funen and Zealand). Establishment within or outside a Danish Technology and Business Incubator (TBI). Firms both inside and outside the existing Danish business incubators were approached to allow for a comparison between the two groups. At the beginning of the research project, it became evident that reliable, complete and detailed information about the population of recently established firms in the investigated sectors was not available. To solve this problem, a double-stage strategy was developed. The first stage of this strategy was to create a list of relevant firms. Three initiatives were taken to prepare the list. First, contact was made to all Danish TBIs to identify relevant

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companies located within the incubators. Second, through a thorough analysis of press releases and with the help of detailed Internet searches, the research group identified other relevant companies established outside TBIs. Third and finally, in an attempt to establish a connection to all remaining potential participants, an “open call” was published in two different newsletters issued by some of the project’s research partners from outside the incubation environment. An “open call” was also posted on the project’s web site. As soon as the list of the relevant companies was completed, all potential participants (high-tech entrepreneurs operating inside as well as outside the Danish TBIs) were invited via e-mail to fill in an electronic “intention form” where they declared their willingness – or lack of willingness – to participate in the research (stage two) and their reasons for, eventually, refusing to participate. Only few gave a negative response and the only reason brought up was lack of time. This convinced the research group that there were no significant differences between the entrepreneurs that answered the questionnaire and those that refused to do so, at least in regard to their interest in the research. At the same time, some company characteristics were collected as well as the participants’ email addresses, which were used at a later stage when the internet-based questionnaires were sent out. During the second wave, the old respondents were reminded of the forthcoming survey by letter some time before they received the e-mail with the link to the questionnaire. To increase the sample size, new respondents were secured by direct phone contact. If they agreed to participate, basic information about the company and email addresses of the entrepreneurs were collected. 2.2 Qualitative The selection criteria utilized in the qualitative investigation partly overlapped and partly differed from those used in the quantitative part of the research project, due to the different needs, objectives and characteristics of the qualitative method. To start with, the business start-ups located through a preliminary database search and thanks to a broad analysis of different available sources (web pages and journal articles) were divided into two main groups – all in all ca. 100 firms. The first group was constituted by firms in their “pre-growth phase”. In this phase, the initial problems were

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supposed not to have been overcome yet, and the firms were expected to be typically dependent on either the support of an incubator environment or other institutions or persons providing resources at a low cost. Memory of the establishment phase was expected to be still very clear and more or less all members of the entrepreneurial teams were expected to be still involved in the business. The second group included enterprises that had survived the initial pre-growth phase and that were going through their “first growth” phase at the time when the interviews were conducted. Here, the enterprises were expected to be entering fast growth and sometimes to leave the incubator environments. Table 1 Gender Phases Pre-growth First growth

Age group TBIs Non-TBIs TBIs Non-TBIs

Total

Male 18-24 1 1 1 1 4

25-34 1 1 1 1 4

35-44 1 1 1 1 4

Female 18-24 25-34 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4

35-44 1 1 1 1 4

Total 6 6 6 6 24

Extant research shows that a person is very unlikely to become an entrepreneur before the age of 18 and after the age of 44 (Reynolds and White 1996). A comparison between older and younger entrepreneurs might, therefore, highlight differences in their internationalization behaviour and in their approach to entrepreneurship due to different socialization experiences. Furthermore, previous literature shows that there is a distinct difference between the entrepreneurial rates for men and women (Reynolds and White 1996; Reynolds, Hay et al. 1999). Female entrepreneurship is dramatically lower. This is especially true in Denmark (Reynolds, Hay et al. 1999). Although, in general, one third of all entrepreneurs are women, in hi-tech sectors this phenomenon is particularly evident – here only one fifth are women (Roberts 1991). These reasons urged an “over-sampling” of female entrepreneurs with the goal of understanding their perspective, possible advantages or disadvantages compared to their male counterparts and their capacity to deal with and compete in the global arena. In order to capture the differences in age and gender, the sampling procedure for selecting persons for interviewing took into

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consideration all the criteria mentioned above, as illustrated in Table 1. However, the final sample of twenty-four enterprises differs slightly from the ideal sample of Table 1, e.g. because of the impossibility of finding enough female respondents with the desired characteristics. 3. The web-based survey 3.1 Trial and error: The first wave In light of the focus of the project and the participants involved, a number of reasons led to the choice of adopting an Internet-based questionnaire: i)

The research was concerned with entrepreneurs in high-tech and knowledgeintensive sectors. Therefore, it could be expected that these individuals were familiar with the use of computer technology and the Internet.

ii)

Web questionnaires might be more attractive for these categories of respondents than standard pen-and-paper questionnaires and presumably faster to complete.

iii)

Web surveys are a relatively new instrument at the disposal of the researchers and this experience might improve the quality of the research and its results.

iv)

Web surveys cut some “dead times” and expenditures in the research procedure, such as printing and posting of questionnaires as well as the data input phase, since all data can be directly transferred from the system into a data file, which can be made readable by statistical software systems like SPSS for further analyses. During the first wave, the following practical strategy was applied in

administrating the collection of information by means of the Internet-based questionnaire: i)

The survey was announced to at least one entrepreneur in the companies, which had accepted to participate and s/he was asked to communicate the e-mail addresses and names of the co-founders. This implied that, in the case of

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entrepreneurial teams, the questionnaire was distributed to all involved entrepreneurs and even when some of the founders did not want to participate, the research team knew about their existence. ii)

Each of the entrepreneurs received an e-mail with a short introduction and a direct link to their individual questionnaire. The direct link included an access code which served the purpose of identifying both the firm and the individual respondent during the first as well as later data collection waves.

iii)

The e-mails were automatically sent out by an administration module, which was constructed separately to the Internet-based questionnaire. This administration module created the access code by a random number procedure.

iv)

During the first wave, all entrepreneurs were presented with the same questionnaire and asked to answer questions regarding both themselves and the companies as such.

v)

If the respondent had not replied within ten working days, a reminder was sent out. This reminder also included the direct link with the access code. In case of no reply after the first reminder, a second reminder was sent out five working days after the first reminder. A final reminder was sent out after three working days if the second reminder had not been successful.

vi)

The administration module sent out the reminders automatically. Furthermore, this module notified the research team whenever a completed questionnaire was received. In this way it was possible to follow the data collection in progress. The Internet-based questionnaire was set up in a way which made it easy for the

respondents to complete it. Thus, whenever they had to reply to a question with one option only, so-called radio buttons were used and if more replies were possible, check boxes were applied. Furthermore, if a reply implied that one or more subsequent questions should be skipped, the respondents were automatically led to the next question they had to answer. During the first wave, the respondents were given the option to ask for a pen-andpaper questionnaire. A research assistant transferred these pen-and-paper questionnaires to the Internet version. Furthermore, an English version of the questionnaire was

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prepared, both on the Internet and in paper, in case any of the respondents would ask for it. The experience demonstrated that the English version of the questionnaire was not needed (indicating that the composition of high-tech entrepreneurs in Denmark is ethnically quite homogeneous and composed of Danish people or people with an already good knowledge of the local language). In addition, only very few respondents asked for a pen-and-paper version of the survey instruments, mainly as a consequence of practical problems with the web-based survey. For the second wave, it was, therefore, decided to exclude these expensive and time-consuming options. 3.2 The second wave All respondents from the first wave of the web-based survey were contacted by letter and reminded about the imminent start of the new data collection. The company to which the research group had outsourced the organization of the web-based survey set up a system that automatically sent out an introductory e-mail containing a link to the web questionnaire to the respondents from the first wave as well as some new entrepreneurs. The link included a personal code with random numbers allowing the respondents – and only them – to enter the survey (the old personal identification code was used as a key to connect old and new data). The randomized identification codes were meant to reduce the likelihood of intrusions from non-invited respondents. In preparation of the new wave of data collection, two questionnaires were developed, one for the new firms and one for the ones included in the first wave. The purpose of this was to limit the length of the questionnaire for the old firms and to avoid irritating the respondents with questions which they had already answered. In the web solution adopted, the two questionnaires were merged, but an automatic system arranged the skipping of some of the questions in the case of old respondents. Old respondents were addressed with questions about growth, new respondents with questions about the firms’ establishment phase. As the system for the Internet questionnaire was set up by professionals, it was possible to improve it substantially, compared to the first attempt, by, for example, showing the respondent a warning after a missing reply, saving the responses during the

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filling in of the questionnaire (thereby allowing the respondent to take breaks), and allowing the respondent to change previous answers until the final submission. The SNE experience recommends the use of professional services for the setting up of a large scale and complex web-based survey. This is, in the end, the cheapest solution both in terms of economic expenses (all the work involved in setting up the second survey, monitoring it and transferring the data cost less than purchasing the programme which was initially chosen) and hours of work employed by the research group. In addition, the final result is much more satisfactory and appealing for respondents, especially when these are technologically-skilled and technology-sensitive individuals. The reminder system was organized as in the first wave and worked perfectly, increasing the response rate as expected. 4. Individual and group interviews Interviews were conducted by two members of the research group, normally a senior and a young researcher. All of them were type recorded and transcribed, except for a few instances in which the interviewees asked for the tape recorder to be turned off. Interviews were conducted at the address chosen by the interviewee. This was in the majority of the cases the address of the firm and only in few instances, the research institution at which the interviewers were employed. This allowed for an “observation” of the environment in which firms operate and, since the interviews took place in two waves, changes in the environment and structure in connection to the firms’ development were immediately visible to the researchers. Interviews were often supplemented by notes, which also took environmental conditions into account. On average, the meetings with the interviewers lasted 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Both the first and the second wave of interviews were in-depth interviews built around interview guides. For the second round of interviews, individualizes interview guides were prepared for each interview, based on the information collected during the first wave and on further available information derived by different media (web-pages, journal articles, official databases). This flexibility was needed due to the different life-

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stories and developments of the firms and the entrepreneurs. The research group intended to follow up all firms and all alpha-entrepreneurs also in the cases where the firms’ initiators had left the company or when the company had ceased to exist. This was possible in all cases, testifying the interest of the respondents in the research and the good relation established by the research team with the respondents. The team also has collected information about most of the entrepreneurs who were not interviewed the second time. 5. Problems and open issues Using an Internet-based questionnaire for the quantitative survey gave as an immediate result savings on postage for sending out and receiving the questionnaires and reduced costs for the subsequent data entry process. In addition, it certainly made the entire process of collecting information faster and easier to handle. One may believe that costs in relation to the printing of questionnaires can be saved as well when using an Internet-based version. But this is only partly true: the questionnaire has to be developed, discussed by the research group, tested and corrected. This typically happens with the support of a word processing system. This preliminary phase is, thus, identical to the traditional survey construction procedure. After its development, though, the survey needs to be transferred to the Internet. This can result in a quite troublesome process. For the first wave of data collection, the SNE group acquired a software package named Sphinx. This software is an advanced data entry programme with an add-on, which transfers the questionnaire to an HTML-based version. The original set up and layout of the questionnaire get lost during this transfer, so it needs to be restored in the HTML environment. This implies that if any changes are needed in the original questionnaire, the set-up and layout in the HTML-based version need to be corrected as well. In other words, the transfer of the questionnaire from the wordprocessing system to the Internet was long and complicated. The construction of an Internet-based questionnaire may be seen as identical to the construction of a data entry module. But, as indicated above, it seems as if much more work has to be done in the design phase to produce an appropriate screen layout. If the

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screen layout is not appropriate, this might negatively affect the response rate. In this sense, the importance of the appearance of the final result on different kinds of screens and resolutions needs not be underestimated. It is general knowledge that web surveys tend to have lower response rates as a consequence of the impatience associated with the technology adopted (cf. Dillman 2000). Therefore, when designing the layout of an Internet-based questionnaire, it is important to avoid long periods of waiting in the shift from one screen to another. The speed, though, depends also on the Internet connection of the respondent, which is a variable outside the control of the researcher. The lack of control of the conditions and the identity of the person completing a web-based survey are general problems to be considered. In this respect, the problems are similar to those connected to surveys using mail-questionnaires. However, some elements such as time (day or night) and conditions under which mail is opened and sorted might be significantly different in the two types of surveys and influence the response rate and quality. Studies about these issues are still lacking. Finally, when completing a web-based survey, it should be possible for the respondent to leave the questionnaire and to continue later, without having to keep the Internet connection open and without loosing the parts that have already been compiled. This has been a critical point in the first SNE experience. During the first wave, the system did not save the answers until the total completion of the questionnaire. Some respondents who experienced problems with the Internet connection while compiling the survey got frustrated by this experience and decided to quit it. Luckily, this happened only in a couple of cases. The problem was solved before the start of the second wave. This time, the system was set up in such a way that answers were saved immediately, but still allowing respondents to go back and change them or to interrupt the completion many times until the final submission. A final problem encountered during the first wave of the web-survey was that a separate administration module needed to be set up, which could handle the entire process of sending out questionnaires and reminders and registering the returned questionnaires. This module was constructed in a database environment and worked perfectly, but its realization took additional time and rendered the entire machinery even more complicated.

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The experience achieved shows that questionnaire-based surveys using an Internet approach are very good in marketing research, where questionnaires are shorter and less complicated than the ones used in social science research, but they are not as good when they are used in other types of empirical investigations where the degree of complexity is higher. The available possibilities in the form of software systems which can be operated by persons without any specific knowledge of and experience in working directly in an Internet environment are still limited. The problems encountered during the first wave of the web-based survey led to a search for better solutions for the second wave. The result was that even if substantial development has taken place in recent years, new options are still not available to ordinary users. For the second wave, it was decided to construct the Internet-based questionnaire directly in a HTML environment. In doing so, the design and layout as well as any logic and the administration module could be fully integrated, but the work had to be outsourced to professionals outside the research team, with experience in working within an HTML environment, working in close contact with the research group. An additional problem with the quantitative data collection, which does not depend on the type of solution chosen (web-based survey) concerns the sample size. As already mentioned, getting a complete list of all companies established after 1995 in the sectors on which the SNE group wanted to focus was very complicated and significantly slowed down the first phases of the research leading to the overlap of the first qualitative and the first quantitative data collections. It is regrettable that official statistics are often not updated enough or that they do not include descriptions of the products and nature of the companies detailed enough to allow for a classification of high-tech and knowledgeintensive companies. Official classifications are generally too broad for this purpose (i.e. NASCE codes). The list prepared by the SNE research team is believed to approximate the real number of firms with the desired characteristics, but there is no final proof that this is the case. The number of companies found convinces the researchers that the sample size is satisfactory, even if it does not reach 100 units. Among other reasons, this is due to the size of the country and to the relatively low-tech characterization of its

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economy4. Nonetheless, the low number of respondents has implications for the type and depth of the data analysis that can be conducted. This is especially evident when the sample is divided in subgroups (male vs. female entrepreneurs; ICT vs. biotech companies and so forth). The relatively long duration of the first web-survey is due to the desire to obtain a sample as large as possible. The qualitative parts of the research project did not give raise to as many problems as the web-based surveys. However, some problematic issues can be mentioned. First of all, all interviews were conducted by two members of the research team at a time (generally speaking, one senior and one junior researcher). This is, of course, an expensive solution, but it increases the validity of the results and it constitutes a guarantee that all important topics are addressed during the interviews. Secondly, conducting so many interviews in different parts of the country is costly both in terms of time spent on organizing and carrying them out, and in transportation. Nonetheless, the direct observation of the physical environment in which the companies operate and of their settings adds much to the understanding of their development and conditions. All participating interviewees appeared to be very interested in the research and its results. This brings up important questions concerning the capability of the researchers to communicate research results to the participants. In the experience of the SNE project, even if participants were kept updated about the developments of the research, publications were sent to those that asked for them and an annual workshop was organized to share results, the impression is that much more would be needed and desirable in the interaction between academia and the business world. To conclude, a final remark regards the over-studying of certain groups. As mentioned above, a small country like Denmark does not have enormous amounts of newly established businesses, even less in high-tech and knowledge-intensive sectors.

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Official sources affirm that in the years 1996-1999 in average 10 new firms were created in Denmark in the biotech sector. In year 2000, The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has registered a total population of 161 Danish pharmaceutical companies of which the biotech and life science ventures only constitute a smaller part. For the whole of Europe, new biotech entities established in the period 1996-2000 amounted to a total of 94. In the US the comparative number was 83. In the previous five-year period the numbers were 90 and 66 respectively. Similar information has not been found about ICT companies.

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The recent strong interest from the side of the government, academia, and other public and private organizations in entrepreneurship and in knowledge-based businesses causes an over-studying of these groups with the result that respondents become unwilling to participate. 6. Conclusions Research in entrepreneurship is growing due to the interest that governments and scientists show in the contribution of newly established firms to the economic development and competitiveness of countries in the global environment. However, most of the studies conducted suffer from a lack of depth and methodological awareness. This paper has presented the experience of a large-scale, longitudinal project based on a triangulation of research methods. The research project, called SNE (social networks and entrepreneurship), has focused on high-tech and knowledge-based entrepreneurship in a European country, Denmark, looking at the individual and the company level and at the developments happening at both levels over time. It has used a triangulation of research methods, adopting a web-based questionnaire and conducting individual and group, indepth interviews. In addition, the study has been based on a very large and detailed documentary analysis, including official documents, statistics and different kinds of media communications (Internet, newspapers and the like). The paper has reviewed both successes and failures experienced by the researchers and it has been described how some of the problems encountered have had serious consequences for the research results and the possibilities that are given to the researchers to apply more advanced types of analysis, which can allow them to surpass the descriptive stage and to offer a more explanatory and theory-building contribution to the development of entrepreneurship research and practice. Some of the problems incurred have deeply frustrated the involved researchers, as in the case of the first web-survey or the problems in obtaining complete and reliable information about the newly established firms. Nonetheless, this has been a very important learning process from which the involved researchers have learnt important lessons that they hope to have at least partly shared with the research community by writing this paper. For future attempts, the researchers in particular want

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to underline the importance of a good preliminary work both in determining clear research hypotheses and in creating a complete list of firms representing the observed population from which the sample(s) is/are to be drawn. The SNE experience demonstrates the importance and usefulness of a longitudinal approach, but also indicates how expensive and time-consuming this choice is and that such a choice requires that the research team establishes a very good and direct relationship with the respondents. The SNE project represents a pioneering experiment of Triple-Helix cooperation (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 1998; Leydesdorff 2001), being a government-sponsored research project developed in close connection with private and public organisms, including private firms, research institutions and other external partners. After almost three years of activity, the SNE research group can affirm that this experiment has been partly successful. It was possible to establish good cooperation with the firms involved in the project, which have demonstrated the incredibly high interest of newly established businesses in a reflexive process involving scientists in the establishment and growth phases of new companies. However, the conditions under which researchers operate limit significantly the possibility to offer these firms the amount and quality of feedback that they deserve and require. To do so, researchers should learn how to communicate research results to a non-scientific public. Incentives to do so should enter the evaluation criteria for careers in higher educational institutions as well. In this respect, it is important to notice that the SNE project has focused on a very specific kind of enterprises and entrepreneurs, the latter being highly educated individuals, often themselves with scientific backgrounds, and therefore capable of “talking the same language” as the researchers. This has facilitated the communication between the research team and the involved companies. The same would probably be more difficult when dealing with other kinds of entrepreneurs. However much more could and should be done in this sense. The SNE experience shows that, at least in some contexts (some nations and certain specific professions), it is possible to start addressing broader groups with webbased surveys. However, many of the implications connected to the use of this new important tool are still unknown and the technical development has not yet developed a user-friendly instrument that allows non-experts to use web-based surveys without risking incurring in serious problems.

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