Social Capital Investment Research Articles

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SOCIAL CAPITAL FORMATION THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

The present study has been designed to explore the effects of social media on the social capital formation among university students in Punjab Pakistan. Sociability is essential for the development and maintenance of a network. A person's social behavior may be altered by the usage of digital media, which may make it easier for them to create virtual relationships, which may have negative consequences for their social capital. Even though computer-dependent communication might help people make virtual relationships, it has the opposite effect of increasing interpersonal and face-to-face conversation. In the world of globalization internet particularly social media increase the human interaction across the globe. People develop social relationship with different people and form their online social capital. It is possible that using social networking services for the maintenance and growth of social capital would be extremely beneficial to those who have a social capital investment. Social capital is most typically acquired through intimate relationships with family, close friends, and coworkers, among other things. The main objective of study is to study the basic social media profile and the socio-economic characteristics and its relationship with the social capital formation. Present study was conducted in Universities in Punjab, Pakistan. The study was conducted in large scale universities of Punjab province. Representative Sample of 520 was randomly with the help of Taro Yamani Formula. Data was collected with the help of a questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS. Logistic Regression and Correlation test was applied to check the relationship between variables, and it was concluded that social media helpful in the formation on online social capital formation that ultimately leads towards the offline bonding and bridging. Key Words: Social Capital, Social Media, Regression, Correlation, Online Bounding.

Does social capital foster sustainable investment?

AbstractHow do country‐level societal norms affect financial investments? We provide evidence that mutual funds managed in high social capital countries are inclined to consider environmental, social and governance filters in their portfolios, especially when acquiring new stocks and investing abroad. We argue that social capital nurtures the investment preferences of retail investors, whose demand incentivizes fund managers to respond in kind. Such impact is more pronounced in individualistic and high–power distance societies, suggesting that the social cohesion benefit of social capital complements altruistic inclinations in the former and provides mechanisms to punish unsustainable investment behaviour in the latter.

Why Social Capital Matters for the Success of REDD+ Programs

Background and objective We quantitatively estimated the impact of social capital on poverty reduction using a survey conducted on 335 randomly selected households in 6 villages running REDD+ programs in Bago Province, Myanmar. Our central question is whether the effectiveness of REDD+ programs is associated with social capital, including networks, trust, cooperation, and social inclusion. Methods We developed a tool to measure social capital while considering forest conservation activities, and quantitatively analyzed the impact of social capital on poverty levels in 6 villages running REDD+ programs in Myanmar. Results Our results reveal that social capital has a significant effect in alleviating household poverty in Myanmar. Thus, investment in social capital may help alleviate poverty. REDD+ training participants and community forestry members showed a relatively higher level of social capital than those who did not participate. We also found that forest dependents were statistically significantly more likely to live in poverty, which implies that socially marginalized residents tend to rely more on forests and that collecting forest products has limited effects on overcoming poverty. Conclusion The local strategy for implementing REDD+ programs should target community forestry members to promote their social capital by supporting forest tenures and benefit sharing among marginalized people.

Social capital investment in social justice: How parents shape socioeconomic diversity within early childhood programs

To better understand how parent choice and program participation fosters socioeconomic diversity within community early learning programs, this in-depth case study examined two high-quality, socioeconomically diverse community early education program sites operating in Baltimore City. Key findings of this study include, (1) Despite their shared belief in its value and benefit, parents across the income continuum did not explicitly seek out enrollment in socioeconomically diverse early care and learning programs; (2) Within the two selected program sites, program recruitment and engagement approaches were neither explicit nor refined enough to appeal universally to parents across varying economic backgrounds; and (3) Parents may struggle against their own class-based social identities and internalized value systems in enacting the choice of program that drive the development of socioeconomically diverse settings.

Brief Review of Informal Financial Services Typologies in Zambia: Investing in Sustainable Savings Groups

Informal financial services (IFSs) provide various types of investment avenues for both rural and urban populations in Zambia. This paper is a critical review of the sustainability of various informal investment typologies Zambians has been using and adopting to increase their financial resources and solve their livelihoods and social issues in the process. An evaluation of why people and organizations opt for specific financial services that come in the form of savings and lending groups will be discussed in detail to understand if they have been meeting people's expectations. The paper derives its data from various studies in the past 10 years that emanates from Zambia and Sub-Saharan Africa. While the sustainability of various typologies of informal financial services is broad, they are measured through risks associated, savings policies adopted, group loan guarantees and flexibility, interest and transactional expenses enforcement, income-generating, wealth creation and any social capital investment. The research reveals that limited studies have looked at various typologies of savings and lending groups, including evaluating their sustainability. This study helps in decision making for anyone or organization who would want to join or start a savings group in Zambia and key parameters to follow.

Psychosocial concerns in a context of prolonged political oppression: Gaza mental health providers' perceptions.

In this qualitative exploratory study, we investigated the perspectives of mental health providers in Gaza, Palestine, regarding the primary concerns of their clients who are exposed to low-intensity warfare and structural violence. We conducted qualitative interviews with 30 psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and psychiatrists providing services to communities in Gaza. Participants were asked to discuss their clients' most commonly occurring mental health problems, diagnoses, and psychosocial conditions. Thematic analysis identified one superordinate theme (Impact of the Blockade on Mental Health and Quality of Life) and four second-order themes (Concerns about Social Problems, General Concerns about Quality of Life, Concerns about the Mental Health of the Community, and Concerns Related to Children's Mental Health). Participants indicated that the social and political dimensions of mental health and the economic, educational, and health-related consequences of the ongoing blockade of Gaza were the main determinants of psychological burden among their clients. Findings demonstrated the importance of adopting an approach to mental health that includes understanding psychological indicators in a broader framework informed by human rights and social justice. Implications for research and clinical work are discussed, including the role of investments in social capital that may provide individuals with access to resources such as social support, which may in turn promote overall mental health.

Remittances and Household Investment Decisions: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract The impact of remittances on households left behind by migration is ambiguous a priori due to competing income and substitution effects. We offer new evidence on the effect of remittances on household investment decisions. We enrich our analysis using microdata from five sub-Saharan African countries, different investment alternatives, and different remittance sources. We use a recursive bivariate probit model and imperfect instrumental variable approaches to account for endogeneity concerns. We find that remittances increase the likelihood of human, physical, and social capital investment in most of our sample countries. We also find that remittance sources have a notable influence on household investment decisions. Finally, we explore three potential mechanisms: income effect, substitution effect, and migration expectations. We find that the income effect of remittances mainly drives the positive effect on capital investment. However, we also find evidence of substitution effect by left-behind household members and migration expectations in some countries. We contribute to the ongoing debate on the effect of remittances on capital investments, and our results shed light on the heterogeneous effect of remittance in the literature.

СОЦІАЛЬНА ПОЛІТИКА ДЕРЖАВИ

In modern conditions of globalization, the priorities of human development and ensuring a high standard of living of the population are the main factors of human progress. Not a single state in the world has yet managed to achieve high indicators of the level and quality of life without a drastic increase in living standards and effective investments in human and social capital. The implementation of the state's social policy is based on meeting the material, cultural and spiritual needs of citizens. The goal of the social policy of the state in Ukraine in modern conditions is to ensure the standard of living of the population in accordance with the standards of the European Union. Social policy is a socio-historical phenomenon: it appeared together with the emergence of the state, is aimed at coordinating the joint activities of people and is a regulator of relations between social structures and social institutions, as well as between public and individual human life. In the work, the social policy of the state was investigated, in particular, the social policy of the EU countries and Ukraine was taken as an example. From the conducted research, it can be concluded that the main goal of the social policy of the EU today is to improve the acceptability of the EU in the eyes of the population through the strengthening of the social sector. Today, the existence of the principle of subsidiarity is the main problem for strengthening the social policy of the EU. limiting the competence of the EU in the field of social policy, primarily, stimulating the movement of the workforce. Also, the main problem in strengthening the social policy of the EU can be called the lack of interaction between its member countries on social issues. As for Ukraine, the social direction of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU consists in the adaptation of the national social policy. This refers to the implementation of reforms in the system of insurance, labor protection, health, pension provision, employment policy and other areas of social policy, in accordance with EU standards and the gradual achievement of the pan-European level of social security and protection of the population. The implementation of reforms in this direction must be implemented based on EU programs by involving EU institutions in this matter.

Social Capital during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Case of the Island of Menorca.

The rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered the economic and social lives of people throughout the world. Our overall goal is to understand the mechanisms through which social capital shaped the community response to the pandemic on the island of Menorca, Spain, which was under a strict lockdown in 2020. Between April and June 2020, we performed qualitative interviews (n = 25) of permanent residents of the island. From the findings, it is evident that social capital is an important resource with the capacity to organize help and support. However, the dark sides of social capital, with lack of social cohesion and lack of trust, also emerged as an important negative issue. We identified sources of tension that were not resolved, as well as important sociodemographic differences that are primary drivers for health inequalities. The investment in social networks and social capital is a long-term need that should consider sociodemographic vulnerability.

Gender Aspects of Reproduction of Professional Dynasties in Medicine

The number of female health workers is predominant in the current health care system. However, in terms of the distribution of power and authority, career trajectories, and the culture of relationships, medicine still remains gender-related to men. Reproduction processes of the professional structure of medicine, in which professional dynasties occupy a special place, is also marked by gender differences. Thus, the article addresses the gender specificities of the institutional reproduction of medical dynasties in modern Russia. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty representatives of multigenerational families of doctors from ten cities, gender scenarios for the transmission of professional positions and the gender specificity of using the social and symbolic capital of the dynasty in the context of their reproduction are analyzed. According to the empirical research findings, the dynastic model of marital status transfer maintains and reproduces gender inequality in the medical profession. There is low gender sensitivity in doctors’ dynasties, where women are more likely to be passive or under family pressure to pursue educational and work tracks. The choice of professional specialization is conditioned by gender stereotypes. Career and professional opportunities of women doctors are limited by an imbalance between work and home responsibilities. Dynasty social and symbolic capital investment strategies are less resourceful for women in clinical practice and more effective in academic medicine. The deconstruction of the traditional gender display in the profession is proceeding at a slow pace, while medical dynasties continue to rather reproduce the inequality and male ethics of the medical profession.

Living with grandparents: Multi-generational families and the academic performance of grandchildren in China

Previous studies on social stratification and intergenerational mobility have mostly focused on the effects of parents on their children’s socioeconomic status (SES) attainment, but less attention has been paid to the important role played by grandparents in the life chances of their grandchildren, and its underlying mechanism. By analyzing a national survey sample data of junior high school students in China, this study examines the influence factors of living with grandparents and their effect on the academic performance of adolescents, and the intermediate mechanism. The study finds that (a) three-generation cohabitation occurs when there is a functional need for the nuclear family, and children with lower SES, working mothers, or single-parent families are more likely to experience cohabitation between grandparents and grandchildren; (b) living with grandparents has significant positive effects on adolescents’ academic performance after controlling for other factors; (c) the effect of living with grandparents is moderated by the family’s SES and family structure, and students from lower-SES or single-parent families benefit more from living with grandparents; and (d) living with grandparents to a certain extent benefits grandchildren’s academic performance by enhancing family social capital investment. Households in which grandparents cohabit invest significantly more in the social capital of children than those who do not have grandparents cohabiting. The results of this study show that in modern society, family kinship networks still play a very important role in the status attainment and social mobility of individuals. Therefore, scholars should pay more attention to the important role of extended families in social stratification and mobility and its micro-mechanisms.

The role of a mega-sporting event in attracting domestic tourists: the case of Seoul

PurposeMega-sporting events reportedly can offer many tangible and intangible benefits to the host country and regions, such as job creation, image improvement, local pride enhancement, social overhead capital investment and tourism business development. However, a paucity of studies in the literature have developed integrative models or have explored domestic tourist behavior in a general, or the sports tourism, context. To address this gap, the present study investigates the relationships between event quality, personal involvement, destination image and destination loyalty in the context of event sports tourism in order to provide sporting destination managers with valuable information for sustainable sports tourism development.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected information from 365 domestic tourists who attended the 100th National Sports Festival held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2019. Construct validity of the measurement scale was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), factor loadings, average variance (AVE) extracted and construct reliability (CR). Reliability of the measurement scale was verified by Cronbach's alpha analysis. The authors utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation to analyze the predicted relationships.FindingsThe findings display the positive impacts of (1) event quality on destination image, (2) personal involvement on destination image, (3) personal involvement on destination loyalty and (4) destination image on destination loyalty. The findings indicate the key roles for event quality and personal involvement in improving destination image and the important roles of personal involvement and destination image in building destination loyalty.Originality/valueThe present study (1) contributes to the recent debate in the sports tourism literature over the relationship between the destination image and destination loyalty and (2) shows that there is no mediating role of the destination image on the relationship between the event quality and destination loyalty, and personal involvement and destination loyalty.

When Does Greenwashing Pay Off?

I construct a neoclassical model of investment for a firm that greenwashes its commitment to corporate social responsibility in exaggerating its minimization of using polluting inputs and maximizing its investment in social capital. I assume that greenwashing allows the firm some pricing power in its output market, but in tradeoff, it results in a dead weight loss due to the risk of being caught greenwashing that acts as a negative call option on the increased value of the firm. I find that there are limited circumstances where greenwashing pays off for the firm: when firm volatility is low, when the time till they expect to be caught is short, when interest rates are high and when their pricing power is high. As a result, without government intervention, the circumstances that favor greenwashing are very limited.

Declining returns to investment in tertiary education in Vietnam

The human capital theory in economics argues that education is an investment in human capital and that the acquisition of knowledge and skills would enable individuals to increase their productivity and earnings, and thereby contributing to economic growth. As an investment, education incurs costs and benefits at various points in time. To measure economic benefits of education investment by individuals, economists use the rate of return to investment in education. This rate of return should be positive and higher than that of alternative options to ensure economic benefits of education investment and motivate education decisions. Given that tertiary education attainment is costly to individuals and the society at large, highly positive returns to tertiary education matter for individual and social human capital investments being economically justified. In the present age of mass access to tertiary education, the pattern of declining returns to investment in tertiary education was observed in a growing number of countries that include Vietnam. This trend may avert individual investment in human capital formation, and thereby negatively affecting national economic growth and development. To contribute to addressing this problem, the current paper aims to analyse the factors that drive the decay in returns to investment in tertiary education in Vietnam. Based on the descriptive research method using descriptive statistics, we summarize key trends in tertiary education in Vietnam. We identify that the abatement in returns to tertiary education investment in Vietnam may be attributed to three main factors: (i) the expansion of education supply, in particular tertiary education; (ii) the economic downturn after the global financial crisis; and (iii) the mismatched quality of tertiary education. These findings are foundations for our suggestions on possible solutions to inform the tertiary education development strategy.

Litigation risk and cost of capital: Evidence from China

Using a unique dataset of corporate lawsuits disclosed by China's listed companies, we find a positive relationship between litigation risk and firms' overall cost of capital, cost of equity, and cost of debt. More importantly, we propose two possible mechanisms to mitigate the consequences of litigation risk and find that strong internal corporate governance and intensive social capital investments negatively moderate the relationship between litigation risk and cost of capital. The main findings are robust to the propensity score matching approach, the treatment effect model, and alternative measures. Further analyses show that the relation between litigation risk and cost of capital attenuates among big companies, state-owned companies, informationally transparent companies, and companies located in regions of higher social trust.

Home Ownership Motivation in Malaysia: A Youth Perspective

The government of Malaysia has implemented many housing policies and programs to increase the rate of home ownership among youths. However, this rate remains low as the motivation in having a home has decreased over the years, whilst renting became the youths’ alternative. Besides, a high frequency of job changing has influenced them in purchasing a house. Hence, to verify the gap, this research has performed to understand the relationship between perceived job alternatives and home ownership motivation among Malaysian youths. Local amenities investment, social capital investment, financial benefits, and residential stability are dimensions of home ownership used to study its relationship with perceived job alternatives. Whereas, job insecurity used as a mediating factor between perceived job alternatives and home ownership motivation. The research data collected through an online survey and 379 usable respondents were obtained. Results showed perceived job alternative does have a significant relationship with home ownership and its dimensions. There is also a partial mediating effect of perceived job insecurity on the relationship between perceived job alternatives and home ownership motivation. These findings will be useful for the government to understand the Malaysian youth’s motivation in purchasing a house with a job being an influence.

Social Capital and Large-Scale Agricultural Investments: An Experimental Investigation

Abstract Following the 2007–8 global food crisis, agricultural producers have invested in large tracts of land in developing countries. We investigate how the arrival of large-scale farms changes inter-personal trust and reciprocity, important components of social capital, in traditional villages. We elicit trust and reciprocal behaviour in villages that lie near large-scale farms and compare them with villages at a distance. Our data reveal greater trust in villages close to large-scale farms. Reciprocity is more frequent after farm employment. These results are likely driven by communal coping and reputation building. A natural field measure shows that trust correlates with public good sharing.

Residential neighbourhood choices, capital investment and economic integration of migrants in Chinese cities

As the basic element and most crucial step in the integration process, economic integration is a major theme in migration research. However, few researchers study economic integration from the perspective of residential neighbourhood choices. Based on the China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we explore the association between migrants' residential neighbourhood choices and economic integration in Chinese cities and examine the underlying mechanism of this association. Instrumental variable estimation, an endogenous switching regression model and propensity score matching are applied to control endogeneity problems and to perform robustness checks. The results show that living in formal neighbourhoods (commodity housing, affordable housing, work unit housing, or industrial and mining enterprise neighbourhoods) can promote the economic integration of migrants in China. The impact of migrants' neighbourhood choices on their economic integration occurs partly through human capital investment and social capital investment. When both kinds of investment exist, the human capital investment effect becomes stronger than the social capital investment effect.

Инвестиции в социальный капитал как современное направление в российском бизнесе

In recent years, leading Russian business organiza-tions consider investments in the social sphere as replenishment of their social capital. The study specifies the concept of “social capital of a business organization”. The concept refers to investments in socially significant projects, which contribute to social ties strengthening within the team and in the external environment, bringing fame to this organi-zation and creating more favorable social and psy-chological conditions for its activities. The specifics of business organizations social capital are exam-ined, based on cases from the practice of companies known for their corporate social responsibility. It’s concluded that these projects did not create addi-tional strains on the business, but instead became its development driver. The study of leading Russian companies’ social projects showed that investments in social capital were made on a deep analytical ba-sis. First, “problem areas” were outlined, and then selective financial and logistical injections were made in accordance with the company’s business strategy. In each case, it led to a positive result and increased social capital for the business organiza-tion.

Investment in social capital by the Korean elderly and baby-boomers

Abstract Social capital (SC) is both an input and an output of individuals’ economic choices, but relatively little is known about SC investment, particularly in individuals’ old age. With a premise that SC is an individual-level concept in which individuals purposely invest, we estimate elderly individuals’ stock and investment in SC using principal component analysis of their social engagement, networks, and trust in social institutions. We describe the distribution of the SC stock and investment across various demographic groups. Based on a capital-accumulation model, and using linear regressions and mixture models, we test hypotheses about the drivers – expected benefits, costs, depreciation, preexisting SC, and social-capital in one’s community – and trajectories of elderly individuals’ SC investment. Implications for their life satisfaction are also assessed. Using four waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we find that the elderly exhibit gradual attrition of SC, but women retain more SC on account of better mental health and higher returns on investment from lower starting points. Expected returns on SC are associated positively with individuals’ investment, while the opportunity cost of one’s time and SC depreciation are associated weakly negatively with it. Physical and human capital are complementary to SC, encouraging investment. Community-level stock and investment in SC lead to higher investment by individuals themselves.