Untangling the Affective Practices of Entrepreneurial Networking

Despite the importance of networks in entrepreneurship, their affective dimension has still been neglected by existing research studies. Meanwhile, organizational scholars investigating the role of affect in network theory do not solve the theoretical and practical challenge of understanding affect as a distributed, emergent, multiple and complex phenomenon. Drawing from affective practice theory and a multi-sited ethnography, we explain how dimensions of affective practices structure entrepreneurial networking. The analysis of empirical material highlighted three dimensions of affective practices: immersing, imagining, and tensioning. These practices engage and sustain entrepreneurial networking by evoking a sense of enthusiasm, excitement, anxiety and alertness that instigates interactions, support and cooperation from various actors (family, customers, suppliers, and other entrepreneurs). Our findings contribute to (a) the entrepreneurial networking perspective by focusing on affective practices as sites of entrepreneurial networking, (b) deepening our understanding of the combined role of affect and imagining in entrepreneurial networking and (c) theorizing the important but overlooked role of material objects and artefacts in the unfolding of entrepreneurial networking.