Abstract

This study investigates how entrepreneurs and managers in the high-tech sector network to develop trusting relationships with clients in commercialisation of innovation, using electronic social network platforms (SNPs), despite a difficult time in Covid-19. Commercialisation of innovation plays a critical role in NPD (New Product Development). Entrepreneurs in small businesses are at a disadvantage in the innovation process due to limited resources and therefore struggling in forming business partnerships and benefiting from robust trusting relationships which lead them to an exposure innovation failure or result in delays in bringing new products to market. Covid-19 has brought in even more challenges to entrepreneurial networking due to social distancing and less mobility. Despite facing managing multiple roles in the daily operations of the commercialisation of innovation, small business entrepreneurs and managers in the high-tech sector have, in fact, shown that they are more resilient than we may have thought. In addition, the power of digital platforms opens a door of accessing new opportunities in developing business networks for new products to market, especially being as effective tools of reaching out during Covid-19 pandemic. It undertakes an empirical study underpinned a phenomenological approach through a case study in the high-tech sector in England, UK. We conducted in-depth interviews with the owner and managers involved in the innovation to collect their life experiences. Furthermore, the primary data was supplemented by secondary data collection. Data analysis was underpinned by thematic analysis incorporating consistent comparison techniques to identify emerging themes. We provided an explanatory account of the data, building plausible links and casual relationships between themes. This study explores the ways by which the entrepreneurs succeeded the innovation through trusting relationships using the digital platforms, managerial implications, and future research recommendations.