Socio-Economic Factors' Impact on the Offline Networking: A Quantitative Analysis of Albanian Business

• Author: Besa Shahini
• Pages: 257-266

Performance and Risks in the European Economy

257

Socio-Economic Factors’ Impact on the Offline Networking:

A Quantitative Analysis of Albanian Business

Besa Shahini1

Abstract: It exists so many studies and research on networks, especially on business networks, but still there

is a little research which explores the factors that influence a manager's’ willingness to participate in business

networks. Some of the socio-economic factors that moderate this participation are explored through this paper

and the focus is based on offline face-to-face networking activities between companies, especially in an

Albanian context. The research findings shows how the socio-economic factors such as gender, age, position

and education level, influence the participation of such a business network moderated by the personal

networking behavior of an individual. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of Albanian business

member of the business networks. The results suggest that these socio –economic effects are important, but

they do not come first in the perception of the process. What is important, the analysis, furthermore, finds that

personal behavior and attitude are to be considered as key issues when it comes to participation in offline

business networks.

Keywords: Business networks; online/offline networking; socio-economic factors; quantitative analyze

JEL Classification: C8; M12; L21; O2

1. Introduction

It is said that “If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there.”

This quote goes perfectly with what is happening nowadays. Everywhere in the world, it is difficult for

a business, with many projects ongoing, to find people who know everything. Most tasks and projects

within companies have a broad scope and it is difficult to have the expert knowledge about all

dimensions of a project. One major approach to circumvent these problems is business networks to

exchange knowledge between professionals. We are living in a digital are and more of these

experience-sharing exchanges are moved to online platforms or internet-based services.

This raises the questions:

 Do offline business networks have more benefits for the participants?

 Is it face-to-face meetings still appropriate?

 Which factors are influencing the willingness to be part of such an offline business network?

So this study is an attempt to draw a simple panorama of the way how online and offline business

networks can cooperate with each other, and an attempt as well to use empirical quantitative tools, in

1Associate Professor, PHD. Department of Applied Statistics and Informatics, Faculty of Economy Address: Tirane,

Albania, email: besashahini@yahoo.com, besa.shahini@unitir.edu.al