Fostering micro-entrepreneurs’ structural and relational social capital through microfinance

Abstract

This paper uses a multi-dimensional perspective on social capital to investigate how a microfinance institution can enhance the social capital of poor entrepreneurs. Findings show that by creating an environment that encourages frequent meetings and interactions between borrowers, group-based microfinance facilitates the development of relational trust and expansion of the network size of micro-entrepreneurs. An increase in levels of structural and relational social capital, in turn, leads to numerous advantages in terms of the flow of a diversity of resources. Ensuring access to financial capital, creating an enabling environment that fosters structural and relational social capital, and providing training would constitute a much better approach to helping poor entrepreneurs.