REGIS, Helder Pontes; BASTOS, Antonio Virgílio Bittencourt; DIAS, Sônia Maria Rodrigues Calado    MELO, Paulo Thiago Nunes Bezerra de. Mentoring networks: mapping the conceptions in technology incubators of Recife. []. , 13, 3, pp.241-255. ISSN 1984-6657.

Using cognitive mapping techniques, this study explores networking concepts for the incubated businessman's career development. More precisely, we attempted to present the meanings shared by incubated businessmen concerning the informal networks that support the entrepreneurial career, exploring the characteristics and underlying conceptual model of these networks. The study employs a qualitative approach, recently used in organizational studies, which is based on social representation. Data were collected through interviews using a free evocation technique. Fifty-three entrepreneurs were studied, in seven incubators in the city of Recife. The participants' shared meanings indicate some of the mentoring functions as being fundamental to career development. The results support the interpretation of an emerging informal mentoring model in the incubators environment revealed by the dominant discourse on the role of networking in career development. The study brings theoretical contributions to the entrepreneurial career and informal mentoring networks areas, by showing that entrepreneurs' concepts of networks combine old and new categories of the mentoring function in the context of the entrepreneurial career.

: Network; Entrepreneurial Career; Mentoring; Cognitive Maps.

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