The influence of social capital on network effects

Abstract

Introduction. The current social and eco­nomic changes caused by networking relations in the economic system are a significant element of contemporary scientific research aimed to identify the essential characteristics of such new concepts as "network economy" and "social ca-pital". This situation has resulted from the deve­lopment of Internet technologies, the increasing role of intangible assets in value creation, and the need to study the state involvement in these processes, which identifies the level of their development.Problem. The impact of social capital on the economic system has been observed in various patterns of economic system relationships, and it is amid the network economy that this impact is clearly revealed through the changes in the mani­festation of network effects. It is necessary to spe­cify such changes for the effective organization of economic relations under the conditions of the network economy as well as for the determina­tion of the role of social capital in them.The aim of the article is to identify the relationship between social capital and the net­work economy and determine in which interact­tion patterns of the economic system social capital changes (or levels) the manifestation of network effects.Methods. In the course of the research, the following methods were used: analysis, genera­lization, comparison, analogy, scenario constru­ction, graphic, and microeconomic analysis (marginal utility curve).Results. In the course of the research, there has been revealed the relationship between the levels of social capital and network readiness, as well as theoretical and practical aspects of the outlined issues. The findings obtained while analyzing the nature of the formation of various relationship patterns of the economic system and the role of social capital in those patterns show that social capital determines the manifestation character of network effects (posi­tive and nega­tive) in such patterns.Conclusions. The components of social capi­tal are identical to the elements of network via­bility. Thus, social capital becomes a key mana­gement object in the network economy. The obtai­ned results of the research will form the basis for further scientific research on the social capital management system of an enterprise in the network economy.