Two factors must be considered when dealing with the networking necessary for high-tech start-ups. One is the networking that natural scientists and engineers use when starting firms, especially reaching out from the university community. German and French natural scientists and engineers may not be interested in cooperating with social scientists in building an academic discipline in entrepreneurship studies, but if they want to start a firm they readily admit that they need a lot of help in the non-technical aspect of entrepreneurship. The historical example of Silicon Valley, where plenty of expertise (consultants, venture capitalists, public relations firms, etc.) is available to scientists and engineers looking for assistance, instructed them.

The other factor is the specific networking that could occur, if it is really useful, between people in entrepreneurship studies, the social scientists in institutions of higher education, and the scientists and engineers whose high-tech ideas foster firms. People in entrepreneurship studies believe they can assist the scientists and engineers in this regard, specifically in the non-technical aspects of start-up activity, but those with high-tech ideas generally have not seen how they would benefit from networking with their colleagues in business schools or faculties of business.

The divorce between the two is longstanding and understandable. In Germany, BWL focuses on building an academic discipline that scientists and engineers mistrust, and BWL professors' contacts with praxis are so tenuous that they have not acquired much sapiential knowledge about start-ups from which natural scientists and engineers could profit.