Social capital has been regarded as a driving force in organizational emergence and growth. This research investigates the effects of social capital in nascent entrepreneurial projects carried out by entrepreneurial teams. By surveying 33 nascent entrepreneurial teams, this paper explores how 1) the internal social structure of the team, which reflects the communication patterns and the feelings between the members; and 2) the team's external social structure, which is based on the diversity of ties that the members of the team have with outside parties, impact the advancement of a business idea. It was found that teams with high external social capital have a higher performance, while the empirical results failed to support that high internal social capital was better for team performance.
Social capital; entrepreneurial teams; business plan development