This study aims to explain the materiality of entrepreneurial networking in cultural entrepreneurship from a sociocultural lens.
An autoethnographic approach uses the researcher’s vast experience as a rich source of detailed and contextualized information. Ethnographic estrangement was produced through several autoethnographic interviews. The analysis was based on the interpretation of narratives, which supported categorization and theorizing processes.
The study argues that networking is sociomaterial and identifies four essential dimensions: embodiment, spatiality, exchange of material creations and exchange of material potentialities. From a sociocultural lens, this study highlights that networking is a relational mesh, understood as a large living fabric, where everything is interconnected and in incessant interaction.
The findings contribute to cultural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in general by delving deeper into the understanding of the entrepreneurial networking’s material dimension. The study paves the way for new possibilities for future research by proposing a sociocultural perspective for analyzing networking. It highlights how material interactions can strengthen cultural entrepreneurs’ activity, changing how they address challenges through networking in their contexts.
This study highlights how sociomaterial networking strengthens collaborative and innovative practices in entrepreneurial communities, promoting cultural, social and economic links. For educators and students, it broadens the understanding of entrepreneurship by incorporating the material dimension of networking, enriching contextual approaches. It provides entrepreneurs with a model for increasing cooperation and resilience and generating positive transformation and development.
In the literature on entrepreneurship, networking is often treated as immaterial. However, in practice, networking relies on materialities. Thus, we need to connect dimensions to entrepreneurship in practice. The study reaches this research gap by showing how material actions (meetings, events, partnerships and concrete exchanges) generate the immaterial effects of trust, collaboration and bonding.
