The Perception of an Entrepreneur’s Structural, Relational and Cognitive Social Capital among Young People in Poland - An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The goal of the current paper is to verify how an entrepreneur’s structural, relational and cognitive social capital levels are perceived by young people in Poland. The research involved a group of 374 undergraduate business students from a Polish university as participants. Participants completed a survey on entrepreneurial cognitions. It was found that participants assess the level of an entrepreneur’s social capital as relatively low. Due to the fact that social capital, and its different dimensions, serve different purposes in the process of venture creation, the result obtained can be considered alarming. Its practical implications are related to the necessity to review and design activities facilitating the development of an entrepreneurial culture in Poland. The value and the originality of the paper lie in the approach that allowed us to investigate which dimensions of an entrepreneur’s social capital are seen as particularly weak by people for whom launching a new business is a viable option in the near future.