Personal relationships and university entrepreneurship centre (UEC): complementarity or substitution in shaping student entrepreneurs’ social capital?

This article investigates whether resources obtained from personal relationships, such as family and friends, support or inhibit the role of university entrepreneurship centres (UECs) in shaping the social capital of student entrepreneurs. Drawing on social capital theory and entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) frameworks, we examine how resources obtained from strong links, namely family and friends, influence student entrepreneurs’ connections with a diverse range of actors beyond their usual relationships, particularly within EEs external to the university setting. We administered a questionnaire survey yielding 210 responses from student entrepreneurs enrolled in the French national extracurricular entrepreneurship programme Pépite, implemented by UECs. The study reveals three principal findings. First, personal relationships do not inhibit the role of UECs in shaping the social capital of student entrepreneurs. Second, UECs serve as a substitute when personal relationships do not provide resources for the project. Third, the results highlight the importance of project maturity in enabling students to establish connections with a broader range of actors external to the university within the EE.