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Historically connected with the “story of social capital in American business success” (Laird 10), the concept of business networking emerged during the discussions of the “equal distribution of opportunities” (Laird 8) in American corporations in the 1960s and 70s. The term “business networking” was coined in 1970s and early 1980s (“Networking”), and quickly developed into a set of related skills and competencies and eventually made its way into the general use in the business environment of the end of the 20th century. The first decades of the 21st century witnessed an expansion of the concept beyond the confined space of business corporations, which was followed by its rapid proliferation and diversification, and accelerated by the growing importance of modern phenomena such as globalisation, migration or e-communication, as well as the general availability of ICT, which underpins the importance of both social and professional networks.

As an indispensable competence and embodiment of the “21st century learning and life skills” (Watanabe-Crockett, “The Critical 21st Century Skills”), business networking is traditionally defined as “the creation and use of personal contacts for one’s own benefit or for the benefit of the group” (Jenkins 65) and a “deliberate and discretionary process of creating, cultivating, and capitalising on trust-based, mutually beneficial relationships for individual and organisational success” (Baber et al. 22).