Abstract
Traditionally, entrepreneurs have been considered as individuals with a strong, often charismatic, leadership as well as a high drive for individualism and independence. However, the same cannot be said for businesses. A business unit does not exist in isolation as it will be, in contact with a whole range of other organizations. Porter and Ketels' (2003, p45) study of British competitiveness points out that business networking often plays a particularly important role in the diffusion of new management practice and innovation. This is particularly relevant for entrepreneurial start-ups if we consider Schumpeter's analysis that the entrepreneur leads the way in creating new industries. Thus, entrepreneurs are bound to cooperate at most during the creation of their company, which is a critical step for survival of the business, as the initial resources on which they can rely on are limited. A means to overcome this will be the credibility these businesses can get from their network. However, there are no studies on credibility in the fields of entrepreneurship, as research has been linked only with marketing and organizational behavior (Ali & Birley, 1998, p750).
