Impact at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’: The Role of Social Capital in Capability Development and Community Empowerment

Rooted in the notion of inclusive capitalism, the Bottom‐of‐the‐Pyramid (BoP) approach argues for the simultaneous pursuit of profit and social welfare by creating markets for the poor. This idea has been both celebrated and criticized in the literature. We do neither in this paper. Instead, by leveraging insights from Amartya Sen's work on capability development and the literature on social capital, we offer a more socially embedded and community‐centric BoP approach. By redefining poverty not just as a lack of income, but also as a lack of ‘capabilities’ in Sen's sense that can be developed through leveraging social capital, we offer a systemic framework for understanding the societal impact of business‐driven ventures in the BoP and empowering BoP communities through these ventures. Specifically, we argue that any business initiative in the BoP ought to be evaluated on the basis of whether it advances capability transfer and retention by (a) enhancing the social capital between a particular community and other more resource rich networks, and (b) preserving the existing social capital in the community.     

Entrepreneur political skill and new venture performance: Extending the social competence perspective

Research on the social competence perspective holds that since operating high performing new ventures is dependent on entrepreneurs’ ability to influence stakeholder actions, entrepreneur social competence is likely critically important to new venture performance. Using a sample of 163 entrepreneurs throughout the USA, we extend such research by examining the entrepreneur political skill new venture performance relationship. Our results suggest that political skill, which is the component of social competence which specifically assesses an individual's ability to influence other's actions within the business environment, is positively associated with new venture performance. Study results provide additional support for the social competence perspective.     

Service on a Stigmatized Board,Social Capital,and Change in Number of Directorships

This article seeks to develop a nuanced understanding about the relationship between service on a stigmatized board and reduced opportunities for future directorships on other boards by examining the moderating effects of different dimensions of director social capital on this relationship. Evidence based on a unique sample of firms with boards that were viewed as being stigmatized by a group of corporate governance experts suggests that while serving on a stigmatized board is related to a reduction in future number of directorships held, this relationship is significantly mitigated for directors of upper‐class origins. However, social capital related to affiliations with other elite institutions does not appear to mitigate reduction in future number of directorships held by outside directors who serve on a stigmatized board. Implications and future directions in research on class‐based influence in the corporate community and stigmatization and devaluation of elites associated with corporate failures are discussed.     

Social capital and cultural adjustment of international assignees in NGOs: do support networks really matter?

International assignees face cultural adjustment challenges in their host countries in work and nonwork situations. At the same time, social capital theory suggests that individuals can access and mobilize resources from their social networks. We explore the use of social networks by international assignees from a non-governmental organization in their cross-cultural adjustment to the host country. Specifically, we are interested in the individuals who directly provided support to the expatriate, a network that we term the ‘current assignment support network’. We focus on the size, type and frequency of contact of the international assignee's support network, and investigate to what extent these variables can predict overall cultural adjustment to the host country, or separate dimensions of cultural adjustment such as interaction adjustment, general adjustment and work adjustment. Our findings indicate that certain characteristics of the international assignee's current assignment support network do impact their cultural adjustment to the host country, but that the effects are moderated by whether the assignee has prior international experience.     

Networks,homogeneity and gender in Icelandic business elites

This paper examines business elites in the context of social networks, identity and residential homogeneity. Our focus is gender diversity in business elites and how social activities conducive to networking interact with residential homogeneity. We find that the greater the involvement of top managers in local social activities, the greater the residential homogeneity. This relationship is stronger for women than for men, even though the individual measures are similar for both genders. We suggest that local social activities may foster a shared identity that is especially important for women, as they lack a shared gender identity with men in the group. The paper adds to both theoretical and practical knowledge on the lack diversity in business elites.     

Bringing Political Skill into Social Networks: Findings from a Field Study of Entrepreneurs

The authors integrate the entrepreneurship literature's sociological and behavioural perspectives and examine the processes through which entrepreneurs first build social networks and then use the network resources for enhancing venture performance. Field interviews of entrepreneurs during a six‐month period reveal that political skill is an important individual‐level factor that influences the construction and use of social networks. Theoretical and practical implications of the major findings are discussed.     

Entrepreneurship and mutuality: social capital in processes and practices

Social capital, which offers the broader theoretical construct to which networks and networking relate, is now recognized as an important influence in entrepreneurship. Broadly understood as resources embedded in networks and accessed through social connections, research has mainly focused on measuring structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of the concept. While useful, these measurements tell us little about how social capital, as a relational artefact and connecting mechanism, actually works in practice. As a social phenomenon which exists between individuals and contextualized through social networks and groups, we draw upon established social theory to offer an enhanced practical understanding of social capital – what it does and how it operates. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Robert Putnam, we contribute to understanding entrepreneurship as a socially situated and influenced practice. From this perspective, our unit of analysis is the context within which entrepreneurs are embedded. We explored the situated narratives and practices of a group of 15 entrepreneurs from ‘Inisgrianan’, a small town in the northwest of Ireland. We adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing an interpretive naturalistic philosophy. Findings show how social capital can enable, and how the mutuality of shared interests allows, encourages and engages entrepreneurs in sharing entrepreneurial expertise.     

Networks vs. market methods in high-tech venture fundraising: the impact of institutional environment

This study examines how institutional environmental factors, including cultural norm, state regulatory system and venture capital market, influence the high-tech entrepreneur's choice for using network vs. market methods when approaching prospective investors at the early stage of their new venture creation. We collected comparative data through on-site interviews and questionnaire survey with 128 high-tech entrepreneurs in Singapore (a newly industrialised economy) and 250 in Beijing, China (an emerging economy). Our findings suggest that a culture emphasising the value of social obligation, the under-development of the legal/regulatory system and the immaturity of the venture capital market increased the proclivity of entrepreneurs to use network methods. Moreover, entrepreneurs who value networks higher in social obligation than in information transfer are more likely to choose personal ties instead of business ties. This study enhances our understanding of how high-tech entrepreneurs in emerging economies choose between networks and market methods in venture fundraising, and offers suggestions on how public policy makers in these economies can improve the institutional environment of their regions to promote high-tech new venture creation.     

Familiness,business strategy and stakeholder engagement: The internationalisation of Spanish olive oil mills

Based on social capital theory and the family-firm context, this paper studies familiness' composition and the result of the overlap of the family and firm systems, analysing their influence on the internationalisation strategies of family firms. In this relationship, the stakeholder engagement becomes at the same time an antecedent and a result when developing family businesses' strategies, being one of the most relevant the internationalisation strategies. Prior research focused on familiness as the result of proxy variables such as the percentage of ownership and management in family hands, or business size, instead of as psychological variables resulting from shared organisational culture and social interactions. Through a qualitative study based on 12 interviews of general managers and/or export managers of Spanish family olive oil mills, this study asserts that the level of familiness influences internationalisation strategies, the reasons underlying a business becoming international and its commitment to activities abroad being the role of stakeholders crucial in those interactions. The higher the level of familiness, the more likely the family business internationalisation and the higher their levels of international commitment. Additionally, the higher the concern about their stakeholders, the higher their levels of international commitment. The family businesses' concern for their stakeholders and their international commitment share a reciprocal relationship. The results regarding the relevance of familiness as social capital resources in sustaining competitive advantages support the decision to promote, develop and nurture social capital when a family business goes international.     

Human capital,social capital,and innovation: a multi-country study

The authors examine the effects of two forms of capital, i.e. human capital and social capital, on innovation at the country level. We use secondary data from the World Development Report on a country's overall human development to test for a relationship between human capital and innovation. We also use previous conceptualizations of social capital as comprising trust, associational activity, and norms of civic behaviour to test for relationships between these indicators of social capital and innovation using data from the World Values Survey. Unlike most previous studies that examined human and social capital within a given country, we develop and empirically test a theoretically grounded model that relates human and social capital to innovation at the societal level across 59 different countries, thus providing a more global view of the role of these two forms of capital in generating value. We find strong support for the positive relationship between human capital and innovation and partial support for the positive effect of trust and associational activity on innovation. However, contrary to our prediction, we find a negative relationship between norms of civic behaviour and one of our innovation measures.     

Greenwashing and environmental communication: Effects on stakeholders' perceptions

Since the first Earth Day in the 1970s, corporate environmental performance has increased dramatically, and cases of greenwashing have increased sharply. The term greenwash refers to a variety of different misleading communications that aim to form overly positive beliefs among stakeholders about a company's environmental practices. The growing number of corporate social responsibility claims, whether founded or not, creates difficulties for stakeholders in distinguishing between truly positive business performance and companies that only appear to embrace a model of sustainable development. In this context, through the lens of legitimacy and signalling theory, we intend to understand and assess the different influences that various types of misleading communications about environmental issues have on stakeholders' perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility and greenwashing. Stakeholder responses to an environmental scandal will also be assessed. The hypotheses tested through a four‐for‐two design experiment reveal that different levels of greenwashing have a significantly different influence on stakeholders' perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility and stakeholders' reactions to environmental scandals.     

社会资本与家族企业人力资源管理

人力资源管理对家族企业的竞争和发展起着决定性作用,然而,我国家族企业在人力资源管理上却问题重重,很大程度上制约了家族企业的发展。本文从社会资本的角度来研究家族企业中的人力资源问题,首先阐述了家族企业的社会资本特点,然后指出家族企业人力资源管理问题的罪魁祸首是其社会资本的局限性,最后本文从社会资本视角提出了家族企业人力资源管理问题的解决方案。     

Bonding and Bridging Associational Social Capital and the Financial Performance of Local Authorities in Israel

Abstract

This study explores whether bridging and bonding social capital differ in their impacts on government performance at the local level and the extent to which these impacts vary between localities exhibiting differing socioeconomic resources. The study is based on an analysis of 256 local authorities in Israel. The findings show that bridging and bonding social capital do differ in their respective effects on government performance and that the nature of the relationship of each type of capital with government performance varies by the community's socioeconomic profile. Poor communities with high densities of bridging social capital were characterized by lower deficits as a percentage of total municipal budgets, more accurate expenditure forecasts and greater spending on services per capita.     

Team leader experience in improvement teams: A social networks perspective

In this research, we disentangle the relationship between several key aspects of a team leader's experience and the likelihood of improvement project success. Using the lens of socio-technical systems, we argue that the effect of team leader experience derives from the social system as well as the technical system. The aspects of team leader experience we examine include team leader social capital (a part of the social system) and team leader experience leading projects of the same type (a part of the technical system).We examine four different, yet related, dimensions of a team leader's social capital, which we motivate based on the social networks literature. One dimension, team leader familiarity, suggests that social capital is created when team leaders have experience working with current team members on prior improvement projects, and that such social capital increases the likelihood of improvement project success. We develop three additional dimensions, using social network analysis (SNA), to capture the idea that the improvement team leader's social capital extends beyond the current team to include everyone the leader has previously worked with on improvement projects. Contrasting our SNA-based dimensions with team leader familiarity enables us to better understand the impact of a team leader's social capital both inside and beyond the team. We also examine the effect of a team leader's experience leading prior projects of the same type, and consider the extent to which organizational experience may moderate the impact of both team leader social capital and same-type project experience.Based on analysis of archival data of six sigma projects spanning six years from a Fortune 500 consumer products manufacturer, we find that two of our SNA-based dimensions of team leader social capital, as well as experience leading projects of the same type, increase the likelihood of project success. In addition, we show that organizational experience moderates the relationship between team leader same-type project experience and project success. However, this is not the case for the relationship between the dimensions of team leader social capital and project success. These results provide insights regarding how dimensions of team leader experience and organizational experience collectively impact the operational performance of improvement teams.     

From Taken‐for‐Granted to Explicit Commitment: The Rise of CSR in a Corporatist Country

This article contributes to a thriving line of research that examines issue interpretation and social accounts in order to study the adoption and diffusion of organizational concepts and management practices. It employs the empirical example of the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Austria between 1990 and 2005 to investigate the complex role institutional pressures and social positions of actors play in the local adoption of globally theorized ideas. More specifically, the study reveals distinct patterns in rhetorical CSR adoption that illustrate the initial hesitation and reluctance of an established elite in the Austrian business community towards the Anglo‐American notion of ‘explicit’ CSR, while non‐elite actors who were less favourably positioned in the social order readily embraced the concept. It is in such a sense that CSR is nevertheless instrumentalized to challenge, reinterpret, or explicitly evoke the autochthonous idea of institutionalized social solidarity. Conceptually, this research takes into account social structure, actors' positions in the social order, and resulting divergent adoption motivations – i.e. the individual, yet socially derived, relevance systems of actors – and relates these to mechanisms and processes of institutional change.     

Business owners’ network size and business growth in China: The role of comprehensive social competency

The authors present a model that explains how comprehensive social competency (made up of three components – social skills, proactive and elaborate social strategies, and relational perseverance) is related to business people's network development, and how social networks in turn are related to business growth. We conducted two studies with Chinese small business owners, – one in the capital city Beijing (N?=?133) and a second one in the less developed rural region of Xunyi (N?=?78). Comprehensive social competency was consistently related to network size and business growth. In addition, government network size was related to the business growth since start-up in both studies (employee growth in Study 1 and personal asset growth in Study 2), but business network size was not related to business growth. Government network size also functions as a partial mediator between comprehensive social competency and business growth since start-up. Some differences are found between the rural area and the urban centre.     

Global careers: a social capital paradox

Global careers, typically defined as involving multiple international relocations including various positions and assignments in several countries, have recently received increasing research attention. This interest is driven by a growing corporate need for managers who are able to deal with global integration and co-ordination in large multinational corporations. An important aspect of the competency of a global manager is his or her social capital, i.e. the network relationships he or she possesses. However, while the concept of social capital has been widely used in a number of research fields recently, it has received relatively little attention thus far in the IHRM context. This paper contributes to this research gap, and seeks to answer the empirical research question of how multiple international relocations affect the social capital of a manager. Our qualitative interviews of 20 Finnish MNC managers with global careers identified that such careers represent a ‘social capital paradox’. Global careers are characterized by a broad and diverse network of both internal and external ties. This breadth and diversity relate to (1) the managers' internal contact networks of weak ties (2) their internal support networks of strong ties and (3) their external networks of both strong and weak ties. These typical characteristics represent three major social capital paradoxes in the sense that they carry both significant social–capital-related benefits as well as potential risks.     

Lesbian and gay expatriation: opportunities,barriers and challenges for global mobility

The research presented in this paper addresses an important gap in the expatriation literature in examining perceptions of opportunities, barriers and challenges for expatriation of lesbian and gay (LG) expatriates. This is an area that is under-researched despite such individuals representing a growing sector of the global talent pool. Based on an analysis of interviews with 20 LG expatriates, the study draws on social capital theory as a lens for highlighting LG expatriates' unique attributes and networks. The research is significant in suggesting that the expatriates' sexual minority status is viewed as both a disabler and enabler in expatriation. We suggest that there is a corporate ceiling for LG expatriates, and that they experience discrimination and stereotyping, and oftentimes limited organizational and host-country support. Significantly, the findings also extend research in suggesting that LG workers may have more opportunities in global staffing than previously thought and a valuable role in contributing to inclusivity debates and policy development on the global business stage. Furthermore, LG expatriates may be accepted in host countries when homosexuality is deemed legally or socially unacceptable for locals, and legal and financial independence within LG partnerships may provide them with more mobility than their heterosexual counterparts.     

高管团队社会网络与企业决策绩效的联系机制:理论整合的视角

高层管理团队社会网络与企业绩效之间的关系,是近年来国内外战略人力资源管理研究的热点问题之一。高管团队决策绩效是影响企业绩效的一个非常重要的因素。文章以TMT社会网络为切入点,整合管理者角色理论、信息理论、认知冲突理论以及信任理论,探讨了TMT社会网络和企业决策绩效之间的内在联系机制。     

Embedded Enclaves: Cultural Mimicry and Urban Social Exclusion in Iran

This article argues that symbolic boundaries and their spatial manifestation into embedded enclaves have become new forms of urban social exclusion. Based on participant observation and interviews among lower‐ and middle‐/upper‐class residents in the city of Sari, Iran, the article analyzes how the poor's physical circulations in the city and their performances of class and status have led to an elite backlash, as the latter find more refined markers of social separation in an effort to bolster their own exclusivity. Social distancing through the denigration of the poor and the construction of embedded enclaves brings to the fore the class tensions that are temporarily masked by the urban poor's spatial practices and cultural mimicry. As an advanced form of codified status inequality, embedded enclaves rely on the poor's citywide circulations and on increasing inter‐class interactions in order to communicate difference. Embedded—rather than cordoned off—in prominent areas of the city, such enclaves function as a reminder to the poor of all they cannot have. The upsurge of such establishments in the wake of Iran's shifting economic environment represents an attempt to shore up social position and restore the status quo.