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Human Capital, Social Capital and Business Model Design: Empirical Evidence of Tunisian Firms

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  • Wissal Affes

    (University of Sfax)

  • Habib Affes

    (University of Sfax)

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of human capital and social capital on business model design through the study of the main factors related to the entrepreneur’s profile, his network, and the possibility to have access to external resources. The dataset consists of 107 Tunisian companies for the period from December 2014 to March 2016. We use a quantitative survey conducted from a questionnaire. Our results reveal that (i) the experience, the entrepreneur’s skills, and entrepreneurship education have a positive and significant impact on business model design; (ii) the family support, support structure, customer, and stakeholder’s orientation have a positive and significant impact; and (iii) the effect of the access to external resources, and particularly informational ones, is ostensibly significant on business model design. The access to financial resources, however, has no effect. Overall, this research suggests that the nascent entrepreneur must be aware of his networks (customer, other stakeholders, family support and support structure) and external resources, namely, information resources, and finally he must also have the skills, experience, and level of entrepreneurship education in designing a BM. Thus, the nascent entrepreneur can have an idea about these phenomena through the results found in our research which are also a relevant guide for new Tunisian entrepreneurs.

Suggested Citation

  • Wissal Affes & Habib Affes, 2024. "Human Capital, Social Capital and Business Model Design: Empirical Evidence of Tunisian Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 4829-4857, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s13132-023-01234-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-023-01234-8
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