IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhb/aardom/2003_007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Capital In Organizations – Beyond Structure And Metaphor

Author

Listed:

Abstract

The importance and usefulness of social capital as a concept in the study of organizations have been established by a large body of research. The aim of this paper is to review the concept of social capital in an organizational context, and it identifies five main issues that need to be addressed in future research before social capital can move definitively beyond being merely metaphor for advantage. First, the unresolved issue of causality is a barrier in the study of social structure and social capital alike, and hampers both measuring scales and implications drawn from empirical research. Secondly, it is necessary to determine whether social capital can or should be measured. Thirdly, the negative aspects of social capital should be explored and integrated into the existing research. Fourthly, the field between social capital of the individual and organizational social capital lacks a consistent, bridging theory. Finally, there is a lack of understanding on how social capital develops over time and the potential benefits of taking a life-cycle view of social capital. In conclusion, the field of social capital in organizations still needs a consistent and coordinated research effort in each of the mentioned areas – separately and concurrently - in order to move beyond structure and metaphor.

Suggested Citation

  • Waldstrøm, Christian, 2003. "Social Capital In Organizations – Beyond Structure And Metaphor," Working Papers 2003-7, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhb:aardom:2003_007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hba.dk/fsk/pdfs/0003146.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John F. Helliwell & Robert D. Putnam, 1995. "Economic Growth and Social Capital in Italy," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 295-307, Summer.
    2. Gabbay, Shaul M. & Leenders, Roger Th.A.J., 2002. "Social capital of organizations : from social structure to the management of corporate social capital," Research Report 02B05, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    3. Lederman, Daniel & Loayza, Norman & Menendez, Ana Maria, 2002. "Violent Crime: Does Social Capital Matter?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(3), pages 509-539, April.
    4. Turner, Marlene E. & Pratkanis, Anthony R., 1998. "Twenty-Five Years of Groupthink Theory and Research: Lessons from the Evaluation of a Theory," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 73(2-3), pages 105-115, February.
    5. repec:dgr:rugsom:02b05 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Pearce, N. & Davey Smith, G., 2003. "Is social capital the key to inequalities in health?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(1), pages 122-129.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gonzalo Vargas Forero, 2002. "Hacia una teoría del capital social," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 4(6), pages 71-108, January-J.
    2. Blanca Delgado-Márquez & Nuria Hurtado-Torres & J. Aragón-Correa, 2013. "On the Measurement of Interpersonal Trust Transfer: Proposal of Indexes," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 433-449, August.
    3. Christian Bjørnskov, 2007. "Determinants of generalized trust: A cross-country comparison," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 1-21, January.
    4. Trent Engbers & Barry M. Rubin & Craig Aubuchon, 2017. "The Currency of Connections," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 31(1), pages 37-49, February.
    5. Xindong Xue & W. Robert Reed & Robbie C.M. van Aert, 2022. "Social Capital and Economic Growth: A Meta-Analysis," Working Papers in Economics 22/20, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    6. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Julius Agbor, 2016. "Does Trust Matter for Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Cross-Section of Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Arturo Galindo & Alberto Chong & César Calderón, 2001. "Structure and Development of Financial Institutions and Links with Trust: Cross-Country Evidence," Research Department Publications 4251, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    8. Fabio Sabatini, 2006. "Social Capital and Labour Productivity in Italy," Working Papers 2006.30, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    9. Stefano Bartolini & Francesco Sarracino, 2021. "Happier and Sustainable. Possibilities for a post-growth society," Department of Economics University of Siena 855, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    10. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Asante, Augustine, 2023. "Neighbourhood crime and obesity: Longitudinal evidence from Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    11. Baomin Dong & Peter H Egger & Yibei Guo, 2020. "Is poverty the mother of crime? Evidence from homicide rates in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Tsegay Gebrekidan Tekleselassie, 2017. "Subjective Wellbeing and Institutions: The Case of Rural Ethiopia," Working Papers 016, Policy Studies Institute.
    13. Perotti, Roberto & Labartino, Giovanna, 2011. "Academic Dynasties: Decentralization and Familism in the Italian Academia," CEPR Discussion Papers 8645, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Demombynes, Gabriel & Ozler, Berk, 2005. "Crime and local inequality in South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 265-292, April.
    15. Huggins Robert & Thompson Piers, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and Community Culture: A Place-Based Study of Their Interdependency," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, January.
    16. Nielsen, Line & Koushede, Vibeke & Vinther-Larsen, Mathilde & Bendtsen, Pernille & Ersbøll, Annette Kjær & Due, Pernille & Holstein, Bjørn E., 2015. "Does school social capital modify socioeconomic inequality in mental health? A multi-level analysis in Danish schools," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 35-43.
    17. Andrea Lasagni & Annamaria Nifo & Gaetano Vecchione, 2015. "Firm Productivity And Institutional Quality: Evidence From Italian Industry," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 774-800, November.
    18. Ingebjørg Kristoffersen, 2010. "The Metrics of Subjective Wellbeing: Cardinality, Neutrality and Additivity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(272), pages 98-123, March.
    19. Ball, Kylie & Cleland, Verity J. & Timperio, Anna F. & Salmon, Jo & Giles-Corti, Billie & Crawford, David A., 2010. "Love thy neighbour? Associations of social capital and crime with physical activity amongst women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 807-814, August.
    20. Paolo Buonanno & Daniel Montolio & Paolo Vanin, 2009. "Does Social Capital Reduce Crime?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(1), pages 145-170, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social capital; review; social liability; causality; organizations;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhb:aardom:2003_007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Helle Vinbaek Stenholt (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hahoadk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.