This study analyzes whether entrepreneurial intention mediates between opportunity recognition and the start-up phase of a business. It also sheds light on how the access to entrepreneurial social networks moderates this mediated relationship, as well as exploring which type of entrepreneurial social network (family- or friends-based) helps most in advancing the business project through the start-up process. The study uses original data on 616 university students enrolled in a variety of campuses and degrees in the central-southern area of Spain. The data reveal that entrepreneurial intention partially mediates the opportunity recognition–start-up phase relationship. Importantly, it reveals that a positive effect of this state of awareness on the start-up phase via entrepreneurial intention is stronger when someone in the social network owns a venture, especially if this person belongs to the potential entrepreneur’s family-based social network. The findings suggest that opportunity recognition is enough to advance through the start-up process, while also revealing that courses or curricular activities oriented towards fostering entrepreneurship should facilitate students’ access to entrepreneurial social networks. This paper is one of the few that helps better understand the path an individual should follow in order to advance through the start-up process once a market opportunity has been recognized. As a novel contribution to the literature, this paper elucidates how entrepreneurial social networks can help bridge the entrepreneurial intention-behavior gap and shows that access to family-based entrepreneurial social networks has a greater impact in this regard than friends-based entrepreneurial social networks.

这项研究分析了企业家意图是否在机会识别和企业启动阶段之间进行中介。它还阐明了如何使用企业家社交网络来调节这种中介关系，以及探索哪种类型的企业家社交网络（基于家庭或朋友）在启动过程中最有助于推进业务项目。该研究使用了西班牙中南部地区各种校园和学位中的616名大学生的原始数据。数据表明，创业意向在一定程度上介导了机会识别与创业阶段的关系。重要的，它表明，当社交网络中的某人拥有企业时，尤其是如果该人属于潜在企业家的基于家庭的社交网络时，通过企业家的意图，这种意识状态对创业阶段的积极影响会更强。研究结果表明，机会识别足以推动整个创业过程，同时还揭示了旨在促进企业家精神的课程或课程活动应有助于学生接触创业社交网络。本文是少数可帮助您更好地理解个人在市场机会被识别后才能通过启动流程前进的道路之一。作为对文学的新颖贡献，