Since the 2008 Olympic Games, China's sports undertakings and industry had developed rapidly, and the state had strengthened its emphasis on sports services. Driven by the active entrepreneurial environment and the support of sports policies, more and more small and medium-sized sports service enterprises emerged in the market. These enterprises filled the gap in the market and became the hot topic for the development of sports industry in China. This study selected a sports service start-up company engaged in stadium operation as a case study to understand the survival and development of sports service start-ups. On the basis of reading a large number of literatures, this paper analyzed the development status of the case company and its influences in the process from the perspective of social network.

This study adopted qualitative research method — to observe, interview and accumulate materials of the case company, to collected relevant materials related to the development status of the case company and its members. Through the analysis of the original data, it is found that the case company has experienced the accumulation in the initial stage, the two expansions in the development stage and the reflection in the dressing stage. In the growth of the company , the entrepreneur paid attention to the development of social relations, and the company's internal management was constantly adjusted. Individual companies were facing different challenges in different states and got constant development concurrently. No matter at which stage, with the development of the business, the cooperation degree of the project, the increase and decrease of the personnel, the change of the organizational structure, etc., the social position and social association of the case company would change dynamically to some extent.

The existence and development of the company, as well as the formation and realization of the value of the company, was the result of the interaction of various network relationships around the company. The homogenization of the company's leadership team structure was obvious, which played an important role in supporting and unifying the company's development. In their quest for growth, the company had introduced a number of new social networking  relationships. In a short period of time, a large number of members with different backgrounds and weak relationships with the company entered the original stable relationship structure. Due to the lack of mature rigid system, swayed the original relatively stable structure, which causing some confusion, affecting the original survival of the company. The individual will of the founder, social network capital and his strategy determined the survival status and development progress of the case company. Due to professional background, personal goals and other reasons, employees of different levels had different starting points and degrees of identification with the company. Highly agreed to promote the stability of the company's internal structure, making the company's product innovation efforts not enough. Low recognition made employees contribute less to the company, but the relative independence between them could avoid the leakage of internal knowledge. In the face of customers, the company was mainly dominated by government, so it was in a passive position in seeking cooperation. In the competition with the same industry, because of the size, reputation, case company was often not enough and at a disadvantage. In the current market, although the main service items of the case company met the market demand, they had not yet adapted to the development level of sports economy, and their existence required a more professional team.

In short, the survival and development of individual companies were facing many challenges.  Although it was supported by national policies and its own industry, its development was in a state of multi-passivity due to immature market and irregular operation, which limited the play of its social value. While developing social resources, leaders should pay attention to the improvement of management ability and balance the effect of rigid system and social relations on the development of the company.