Social Capital Literature Research Articles

Do grandparents matter? A multigenerational perspective on educational attainment in Taiwan

In response to the growing interest in multigenerational effects, we investigate whether grandparents’ education affects grandchildren’s transitions to academic high school and university in Taiwan. Drawing on social capital literature, we consider potential heterogeneity of the grandparent effect by parents’ characteristics and propose that grandparents’ education yields differential effects depending on parents’ education. Our results show tenuous effects of grandmother’s and grandfather’s years of schooling, net of parents’ education. However, the positive interaction effects between grandparents’ and parents’ years of schooling indicate that grandparents’ additional years of schooling are more beneficial to students with more educated parents than for students with less educated parents. The diverging gap in the likelihood of attending academic high school or university between students with parents in higher and lower ends of the educational hierarchy, along with increased levels of grandparents’ education, supports our hypothesis that grandparents’ education augments educational inequality by parents’ education.

E-Participation: Social Capital and the Internet

Studies in the social capital literature have documented two stylised facts: first, a decline in measures of social participation has occurred in many OECD countries. Second, and more recently, the success of social networking sites (SNSs) has resulted in a steep rise in online social participation. Our study adds to this body of research by conducting the first empirical assessment of how online networking affects two economically relevant aspects of social capital, i.e. trust and sociability. We address endogeneity in online networking by exploiting technological characteristics of the pre-existing voice telecommunication infrastructures that exogenously determined the availability of broadband for high-speed Internet. We find that participation in SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter has a positive effect on face-to-face interactions. However, social trust decreases with online interactions. We argue that the rising practice of hate speech may play a crucial role in the destruction of trust

A Framework to Address the Key Problems of Social Capital

The concept of social capital emerged as an influential research theme in a number of disciplines in the past twenty years, as measured by the exponential growth in social capital literature throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. While some of assumptions of social capital theory have been challenged individually, the collective failure of the concept has not been adequately tackled within the academic literature. The first half of the paper is an attempt to address this challenge, identifying eight key problems with the concept. The second half attempts to develop a framework derived from a critical geography approach, with which to reconceptualise the concept of social capital and exemplify its place within a radical geography agenda.

“The we's have it”: Evidence for the distinctive benefits of group engagement in enhancing cognitive health in aging

Aligned with research in the social capital and general health literature, a large body of evidence shows that older people who are more socially active have better cognitive integrity and are less vulnerable to cognitive decline. The present research addresses the question of whether the type of social engagement (group-based vs. individual) has differential effects on these cognitive health outcomes. Drawing on population data (N = 3413) from three waves (i.e., Waves 3, 4 and 5) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we investigated the independent contribution of group and individual engagement in predicting cognitive functioning four years later. Hierarchical linear regression was used entering age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and physical health as covariates. The final model, controlling for initial cognitive function and social engagement (both group and individual) showed that only group engagement made a significant, sustained, and unique contribution to subsequent cognitive function. Furthermore, the effects of group engagement were stronger with increasing age. These findings extend previous work on the social determinants of health by pinpointing the types of relationships that are particularly beneficial in protecting cognitive health. The fact that group engagement optimized health outcomes, and that this was especially the case with increasing age, has important implications for directing community resources to keep older adults mentally active and independent for longer.

Using community led development approaches to address vulnerability after disaster: Caught in a sad romance

A reading of the social capital literature suggests that the networks and the social relationships which enable collective action can be used to address critical livelihood needs, even in disaster contexts. Yet even when such community-led approaches are combined with substantial resources, too often these interventions (re)produce vulnerabilities without recovering prior levels of development. Examining the outcomes of community-led approaches in post-tsunami Aceh after the gaze of the aid industry has moved elsewhere, this paper finds that in a few cases, interventions worked with social networks to revive livelihoods successfully, albeit in complex, contingent ways. Yet, given the nature of post-disaster contexts and the exigencies driving NGO and donors actions, the research concludes that the capacity for community based approaches to address the underlying drivers of vulnerability remains limited. The paper calls for a rewriting of intervention narratives and a reworking of intervention practices, to address the deeper determinants of disadvantage and vulnerability.

Beyond Extended Phenotype: Evolution of Extended Identity in Order to Reconcile Study of Humanity with Biological Evolution

The question: “How much of biological evolution based theories, as they are understood presently, apply to human behaviour?” is highly controversial and perhaps highly politicized as well. The inference that human beings are evolutionarily programmed to have urges toward aggression, rape, murder, adultery, genocide and so on is a politically rejected idea within the social sciences. To be politically correct those who use evolutionary framework do claim that people can learn or have capacity for self restraint. However it is not clearly understood, how such restraint can possibly evolve within the evolutionary framework. This paper argues that the missing link that explains such behavior is the concept of extended identity. How extended identity can evolve, following the framework of selfish gene, is explained by integrating theories related to selfish gene, institutional analysis, information economics and social capital literature. Archaeological evidence from evolutionary cognition is also used to show that such evolution could happen 4 million years ago (MYA).

More than a sport and volunteer organisation: Investigating social capital development in a sporting organisation

This paper presents the findings of a study that examines the development of social capital within an Australian sporting organisation, Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA). The study draws on the social capital literature across the not-for-profit sector and specific sport management social capital research. The research design incorporated an interpretive approach with data collected nationally from eight focus groups with key SLSA staff, board members and ‘toes in the sand’ volunteers. The findings provide fresh insights into the development and understanding of social capital within a sporting organisation. Both bonding and bridging were important social capital outcomes of the organisation's activities, albeit with important implications for antecedents and process. The data presented strong evidence for arguing that within the organisation bonding within the club comes first, which importantly provides a very strong sense of belonging and mutual support for club members, from volunteers through to the board. The strength of bonding provides a powerful base for subsequent bridging capital to the local, regional and national stakeholder communities that are associated with the organisation. Further, social capital develops in both the collective and individual, with leveraging of individual skills contributing to human capital development, which is closely connected to and inseparable from social capital. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical implications for social capital generally and social capital in a sporting context.

Social Capital and Subjective Happiness: Which Contexts Matter?

The aims of this study were to investigate how much variance in happiness was attributable to household and administrative-area levels and to examine the associations between social capital at the individual, household, and administrative-area levels and happiness, while adjusting for various control variables at multiple levels. Data from the Seoul Welfare Panel Study (SWPS) beginning in 2008 and conducted by the Seoul Welfare Foundation were used for this study. This study used wave 1 of the SWPS (2008). The results showed that a relatively small percentage of happiness was attributed to the administrative-area level compared to the household level, which implies that a household context is more important for understanding the variation in individual happiness. The results also showed that individual level social capital variables including perceived helpfulness and volunteer work were positively associated with happiness. Perceived helpfulness and organizational participation at the household level were positively associated with happiness. However, no significant association could be found between administrative-area level social capital variables and happiness. The results indicate that different types of social capital at different levels may operate differently to happiness. The current study contributed to the empirical social capital literature by simultaneously considering the individual, household, and administrative-area levels and examining each one’s association with happiness while controlling for various control variables at multiple levels.

Risk Aversion and Social Networks

AbstractThis paper first investigates empirically the relationship between risk aversion and social network structure in a large group of undergraduate students. We find that risk aversion is strongly correlated to local network clustering, that is, the probability that one has a social tie to friends of friends. We then propose a network formation model that generates this empirical finding, suggesting that locally superior information on benefits makes it more attractive for risk averse individuals to link to friends of friends. Finally, we discuss implications of this model. The model generates a positive correlation between local network clustering and benefits, even if benefits are distributed independently ex ante. This provides an alternative explanation of this relationship to the one given by the social capital literature. We also establish a linkage between the uncertainty of the environment and the network structure: risky environments generate more clustered and more unequal networks in terms of connectivity.

Network Shadows: The Perceptual and Performance Implications of Intra-Organizational Dormant Ties

It is often seen as axiomatic in the social capital literature that relationships require ongoing maintenance to remain valuable. As a result, the vast majority of social network theory and research has only considered relationships that are in some way active (or at the very least, recently reconnected after a period of dormancy). Seldom considered are the implications of dormant, unmaintained ties that have remained dormant—which we define as a prolonged state of suspended communication between two parties who were at one point in touch. Our aim in this study is to place social network scholarship on a stronger empirical and theoretical footing by examining the interaction of active and dormant ties within organizations. We present evidence that challenges the standard assumption that dormant ties, during dormancy, are irrelevant and can be safely ignored. Using a bounded-network survey in a large organization, we find that dormant ties—both alone and in combination with active ties—have real implicatio...

From Founders to Firm: Examining the Retention of Founder-CEO Social Capital in Venture-Backed Firms

This paper examines how organizations protect themselves from the negative social and economic consequences associated with the loss of a key member and their social capital. Drawing on the social capital and upper echelons literatures, the author(s) hypothesize that social capital can be institutionalized. The corresponding hypotheses are tested on a sample of 125 venture-backed software firms and the results demonstrate that the institutionalization of a founder-CEO’s social capital leads to better performance for a firm. The results provide a basis for understanding how social mechanisms influence economic organization as well as succession and compensation in a new venture context.

Social capital: a review from an ethics perspective

Social capital has as its key element the value of social relationships to generate positive outcomes, both for the key parties involved and for wider society. Some authors have noted that social capital nevertheless has a dark side. There is a moral element to such a conceptualisation, yet there is scarce discussion of ethics within the social capital literature. In this paper ethical theory is applied to four traditions or approaches to economic social capital: neo‐capitalism; network/reputation; neo‐Tocquevellian; and development. Each is considered in detail and subject to ethical analysis by the application of utilitarianism,Kantianism, justice and rights, and ethic of care. Accordingly, the assumption that social capital is either value‐neutral or a force for good is critiqued, and a framework for understanding social capital from an ethics perspective is presented.

Talent management and career development: What it takes to get promoted

Based on the talent management literature, this paper investigates managerial skills that are essential for managers’ job promotion. Using arguments from the human and social capital literature and following tournament logic, we claim that a manager's own experience, expertise, and network size positively affect promotion odds, while strong colleagues decrease promotion odds. Studying 7003 promotions to middle management and 3147 promotions to senior management, we find broad support for our hypotheses, but find also that network size no longer predicts promotion to senior management. Our findings have implications for individual career development and talent management programs.

Conceptualizing Communication Capital for a Changing Environment

With rapidly evolving technologies, boundaries between traditional modes of communication have blurred, creating an environment that scholars still describe from viewpoints as researchers in interpersonal, organizational or mass communication. This manuscript looks at the social capital literature and argues for conceptualizing “communication capital” to help understand the impact of communication phenomena in a changing environment. The literature has treated interpersonal communication variables as components of social capital and mass communication variables as factors affecting social capital, but scholars long ago recognized their reinforcing nature, leading us to develop a concept of communication capital merging symbolic activity across domains in its potential for impacting civic engagement, defined as persistent communication patterns that facilitate social problem solving in the community. Analysis of survey data shows that 4 dimensions of communication capital explain variance in civic engagement beyond that accounted for by traditional measures of social capital, media use, neighborhood communication, and efficacy.

The social capital legacy of communism-results from the Berlin Wall experiment

In this paper we establish a direct link between the communist history, the resulting structure of social capital, and attitudes toward spatial mobility. We argue that the communist regime induced a specific social capital mix that discouraged geographic mobility even after its demise. Theoretically, we integrate two branches of the social capital literature into one more comprehensive framework distinguishing an open type and a closed type of social capital. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) we take advantage of the natural experiment that separated Germany into two parts after the WWII to identify the causal effect of social capital on mobility. We estimate a three equation ordered probit model and provide strong empirical evidence for our theoretical propositions.

The Impact of External Social Capital on Human Resource Management Practices

The studies focusing on social capital concerning Turkey are all at the societal level. Data corresponding to individual level social capital is not taken into consideration in the available research. Researches in social capital literature are mostly focusing on internal social capital and discounting the importance of external social capital. Nonetheless recent studies disclose the fact that although Turkey has relatively low internal social capital level, it has a relatively high external social capital capacity. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the favorable and unfavorable influences of the strong external social capital argued to exist in Turkish context. Also creation of external social capital and its possible effect on human resource applications such as employment, performance evaluations, promotions, rewarding systems and deployment is depiced. More clearly, in this study, the influence of high external social capital on organizational practices is discussed analyzed and propositions for further empirical research is presented.

Talent Management and Career Development: What it Takes to Get Promoted

Based on the talent management literature, this paper investigates managerial skills that are essential for managers’ job promotion. Using arguments from the human and social capital literature and following tournament logic, we claim that a manager’s own experience, expertise, and network size positively affect promotion odds, while strong colleagues decrease promotion odds. Studying 7,003 promotions to middle management and 3,147 promotions to senior management, we find broad support for our hypotheses, but find also that network size no longer predicts promotion to senior management. Our findings have implications for individual career development and talent management programs.

Investigating causal relationship between social capital and microfinance

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate causal link between social capital and microfinance by testing the role of social capital in explaining the household's access to microcredit under the group‐based lending approach.Design/methodology/approachHousehold level primary data was collected from a rural district of Pakistan. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to construct a social capital index, whereas two logit models were developed to predict the probabilities of access to credit. Besides, few qualitative statements have also been used to supplement the results from main empirical analysis and to understand the impact mechanism of social capital on microfinance participation.FindingsParticipation in local organizations, heterogeneity of associations and level of both generalized and institutional trust were identified as the key dimensions of structural and cognitive social capital to influence households' access to credit. On the other hand, when these dimensions were combined in a single social capital index, the result indicated that social capital index has no significant effect on microfinance participation. This result provides support to the argument that grouping all the dimensions of social capital into one index may run the risk of losing the explanatory power of social capital.Practical implicationsThe results of the study could be encouraging for governments and other development agencies. The existing social capital could be utilized in the design and delivery of microfinance programs as well as other rural development activities. The results of the study also encourage policy makers to invest in the creation of social capital either directly or by providing environment supportive of its creation.Originality/valueThe study is a contribution to the limited empirical literature on social capital and microfinance. This study is the first of its kind in Pakistan and hopefully will contribute to the limited knowledge on social capital literature in the country generally and in the context of rural development specifically.

An exploration of workplace social capital as an antecedent of occupational safety and health climate and outcomes in the Chinese education sector

It is widely acknowledged that teachers are at greater risk of work-related health problems. At the same time, employee perceptions of different dimensions of organizational climate can influence their attitudes, performance, and well-being at work. This study applied and extended a safety climate model in the context of the education sector in Hong Kong. Apart from safety considerations alone, the study included occupational health considerations and social capital and tested their relationships with occupational safety and health (OSH) outcomes. Seven hundred and four Hong Kong teachers completed a range of questionnaires exploring social capital, OSH climate, OSH knowledge, OSH performance (compliance and participation), general health, and self-rated health complaints and injuries. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships between predictive and outcome variables. SEM analysis revealed a high level of goodness of fit, and the hypothesized model including social capital yielded a better fit than the original model. Social capital, OSH climate, and OSH performance were determinants of both positive and negative outcome variables. In addition, social capital not only significantly predicted general health directly, but also had a predictive effect on the OSH climate-behavior-outcome relationship. This study makes a contribution to the workplace social capital and OSH climate literature by empirically assessing their relationship in the Chinese education sector.

Positive and negative synergies between the CEO's and the corporate board's human and social capital: A study of biotechnology firms

This paper contributes to the corporate governance literature by developing and testing theory regarding positive and negative synergies between the CEO's and the board's human and social capital. Using a sample of 360 biotechnology firms that went public between 1995 and 2010, we demonstrate that accumulated public company board experiences of the CEO and the board have positive synergistic effects on IPO performance whereas the current board appointments have negative effects. While scientific educational backgrounds have positive synergies, industry-specific experiences produce either positive or counterproductive effects depending on the age and profitability of the firm. Thus, our paper contributes to the corporate governance and human and social capital literatures by describing the costs and benefits of specific types and combinations of CEO and board capital. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.