While it is widely accepted that social networks are key to small‐firm success, detailed studies on the specific contribution of owner‐managers’ social competence to learning and performance are scarce. In this article, the importance of owner‐managers’ social competence was explored in a specific, innovative small‐firm sector in the Netherlands: the agri‐food sector. This was done by means of a qualitative (n = 13) and quantitative (n = 556) study. In the qualitative study, the two social competence domains most frequently cited and employed in entrepreneurial workplace learning practices were a social learning orientation and the ability to interact with strategic social partners. The quantitative study illustrated that social competence, overall, influences small‐firm performance significantly. However, the relationships between social competence and small‐firm performance seem to depend on the specific strategies that owner‐managers pursue. In particular, this research supports the idea of social competence being an important driver of success for specific small‐firm strategies and for the ongoing development of existing and new capabilities. As such, it underlines the importance of the capability‐driven approach to HRD in the small‐firm context. This, in turn, has implications for small‐firm support programs.