Role of social skills and social capital of the entrepreneur and access to external resources in business creation.

Summary Studies on social capital in the field of entrepreneurship have largely highlighted its role in the success of entrepreneurial projects. Nevertheless, the prerequisites that are likely to influence its formation and development in order to promote access to external resources have been little explored. In this perspective, the research carried out in the ICT context (Information and Communication Technologies), and more specifically during the survival-development phase of new businesses, is still less numerous. In this context, this thesis attempts to understand the process by which the social competencies of the ICT entrepreneur enrich his or her social capital, and thereby facilitate access to key external resources. To achieve this objective, a conceptual model was developed based on a literature review. To test this model and the related hypotheses, we proceeded to collect data in two main stages. First, we conducted an exploratory study with ten ICT entrepreneurs, four bankers and five venture capitalists. This study allowed us, through a content analysis, to better contextualize the research, as well as to identify the essential skills and resources for the development of new creation projects. In a second step, we conducted semi-directive interviews with 120 Tunisian ICT entrepreneurs. The collected data were statistically processed using UCINET-VI, SPSS (version 18) and SMART-PLS (version 2.0) software. The results showed that three types of social skills, namely social persuasion, good graces and emotional intelligence of self, are likely to act in the context of ICT creation. The entrepreneur's social capital mediates between his or her social skills and access to key external resources, while environmental market uncertainty exerts a moderating effect. From the results obtained, we can deduce the main contributions and limitations of this research in order to propose future development perspectives.