Abstract
We investigate the impact of entrepreneurs' personality orientations on their ability to exploit the benefits of social capital. The results reported here indicate that proactive entrepreneurs are more likely to search beyond their existing networks to access cognitively distant opportunities, and to access these via weak ties. This is the case even when they already have a strong tie network. Non-proactive personality types, in contrast, are more predisposed to search close at hand and to rely upon strong network ties to access opportunities. We draw on a database of 100 new high technology entrepreneurs based in Belgium between 2006 and 2011. Our study indicates thal a focus on personality orientation offers important insights in understanding why some entrepreneurs are better able to exploit different forms of social capital than others. This work contributes to social capital research by introducing a contingency view of social capital based on entrepreneurs' personality orientation.