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The varied opinions on financial developmental impacts on growth in different economies have been the subject of considerable debates among economists during the last two decades, especially in natural-resource-rich countries. However, the role of financial development on a crucial channel of growth, i.e. social capital, has been neglected. Unlike previous studies, the level of income in resource-based economies has been considered an important factor influencing the way financial development affects social capital-resource rents’ interactions. Thus, in this paper, the impact of financial development as an infrastructure to turn natural capital into social capital has been investigated in two groups of resource-abundant countries using a panel data model during 2009:Q1-2016:Q4. The empirical results in the case of high-income economies show that a high level of financial development can ensure resource rents, positively influencing social capital. However, findings indicate an adverse impact of natural resource rents on social capital in medium-income countries.

Social capital and access to finance have been identified as key resources that influence the growth of small firms however, these variables have rarely been studied. This paper, therefore, examines the relationship between social capital and firm growth with access to finance as a moderating role. 250 small firms in the Kumasi Metropolis in Ghana were used for the study. Structural Equation Modelling using Partial Least Square (PLS) was used to analyze the data collected using area sampling. The results indicated that social capital does not directly influence firm growth. In addition, access to finance does not moderate the relationship between social capital and firm growth. However, a positive relationship was found between social capital and access to finance. Access to finance and firm growth, though significant, had a negative relationship. It is recommended that since social capital influences the capability to access finance, entrepreneurs should be encouraged to build more relationships within their networks. Moreover, government agencies and financial institutions should devise strategies that will reduce the interest rates so that though these small firms in Ghana can access finance, the high interest rates will not erode the gains they may achieve in the long run.

It is widely accepted that CEOs with a transformational leadership style can promote innovation in the organisations they lead, but the specific ways in which they influence followers and shape the organisational context to increase innovation remain largely unexplored. Improvement of our understanding of this relationship requires identifying and explaining the mechanisms that allow transformational CEOs to mobilise employees towards an active support of innovation. We argue that top managers who portray a transformational leadership style have a positive effect on organisational innovation by improving how the firm exchanges and communicates information and knowledge, that is, by increasing employees’ participation and social capital. Data from a sample of 194 executives from 97 Ecuadorian small- and medium-sized firms provide support for our hypotheses.

Networks, and their resulting social capital, can be key determinants of successful business start-up for immigrant entrepreneurs. Historically, immigrants have settled in communities characterized by networks that consist of strong ties. Network theory suggests that in addition to strong ties, success also requires the development of weak ties. In this paper, we develop a model of the relationships between strong and weak ties, and the likelihood of a business start-up and its subsequent growth. We also specifically consider the moderating effect of the entrepreneur's human capital in these relationships. Based on this model, we derive a number of theoretical propositions.

We investigate the impact of an informal social attribute on cost behavior. More specifically, we examine the effect of generalized trust (trust in others) on cost stickiness. Using a large international sample from 44 countries, we find that generalized trust significantly increases cost stickiness. Important rationales for this result are that managers in more trusting societies are more optimistic and are committed to stable, long-term employment relationships. This study makes a significant contribution in understanding cost stickiness differences across the globe. Our results further complement prior research which has found, to the contrary, that trust and cost stickiness are negatively associated at the local level. Hence, our study corroborates the importance of distinguishing between local social capital and global generalized trust concerning their effects on economic outcomes.

It is possible that when looked at from the outside, the Gulf Arab countries give an impression that they are not very supportive to female entrepreneurs. This perception may be pertinent to a certain degree; however, Emirati female entrepreneurs (EFE) in the United Arab Emirates demonstrate that enhancing co-operation and support is possible through increasing interaction and networking with men. Analysis is undertaken of the observations and actions of conveniently selected 17 EFEs. The scoping of the respondents reveal that EFEs who engage with indirect male ties require a 'male contact facilitator' from their family or relatives to do so. These men are facilitated by the entrepreneur to adopt the role of a 'male network partner (MNP) and provide support in overcoming challenges and achieving business objectives. The paper sets new standards of support for Emirati women in business ventures as it attempts to describe Emirati female entrepreneurship in a different language and proposes that co-operation, interaction and networking with men help EFEs access and use key resources, alleviate or remove key challenges and achieve business objectives.

Cultural values and social capital are important parts of the context that determines countries’ innovation performance (and, hence, economic development). This paper investigates the culture–innovation relationship in a European context, as well as the mediating role of the national-level trust in this connection. Data are used to test the hypotheses that a country’s innovation performance is influenced by its cultural value emphases and societal trust, and that the culture–innovation relationship is mediated by societal trust. Based on data from the Global Innovation Index and the European Social Survey covering 27 European countries, we find that innovation at the country level is positively correlated with the level of societal trust and with three cultural value dimensions: “Autonomy versus Embeddedness”, “Egalitarianism versus Hierarchy”, and “Harmony versus Mastery”. A multivariate SEM analysis reveals that when “Autonomy versus Embeddedness” is controlled, the two other cultural value dimensions are no longer significant. Further, a SEM path analysis confirms that the relationship between cultural values and innovation performances is completely mediated through the level of trust in a society. Overall, “Autonomy versus Embeddedness” has a stronger total effect than societal trust on a country’s innovation performance, but most of this effect is indirect, mediated through societal trust. Implications of our findings for the corporate level (i.e., entrepreneurs and managers) as well as for the institutional settings (i.e., policy makers) are discussed. It is suggested that for successful innovation to blossom, the actors on both levels should aim at strengthening the cultural emphasis on individual autonomy, institutional integrity and mutual trust.

This paper examines the association between university–industry collaboration and firm innovation performance, and the effect of informal mechanisms of knowledge transfer on such an association, using data from a survey of 245 firms in Ghana and employing partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results are of significant relevance to the business community and policy-makers in Ghana and West African. We find that while university–industry collaboration is positively related to innovation performance in firms, informal mechanisms of university knowledge transfer do not and negatively moderate the positive association between university–industry collaboration and innovation performance in firms. It is also found that to facilitate innovation outcomes, formal, legal binding contracts are required. The study recommends that university knowledge generation and innovation policies in Ghana encourage formal collaboration between knowledge exchange actors. It is also suggested that improvements need to be made to the efficacy of intellectual property legislation in Ghana.

Transdisciplinary innovation — what is it and how does it work? In this paper, the way disparate professional and community actors may work together is considered, drawing on case study data from three different Australian–Indian academic research collaborations. One considered food sector SME innovation practice in the two countries and the other two considered the deployment in India of radical technologies developed by international teams to deliver social benefits. The collection of knowledge artifacts from disparate sources was the norm. Implementation of an innovative idea or technology application commonly involved interactive learning from parallel testing of possible combinations. Six themes to be explored further emerged from this exploratory study. These related to social networking, interaction protocols, the use of boundary objects, knowledge sharing and modes of research.

This chapter introduces the system for crisis management in Sweden. Over the last century, Sweden has gone from being a poor European backwater to being among the countries with the highest human development in the world. The droughts and harsh winters that killed thousands and drove numerous Swedes to emigrate in the past are mere distractions today and the contemporary system for crisis management is designed to deal with a broader variety of crises than the ones triggered by natural hazards. The system is based on the principles of responsibility, parity and proximity, and distributes sector and area responsibility for crisis management to numerous actors. It is built to a great extent on collaboration between these actors, which is challenging but working relatively well in the cultural context of consensus-seeking and compliance to official guidelines and accepted rules of engagement. However, the system is in itself ambiguous in the sense of distributing responsibility to all kinds of actors and then focusing almost exclusively on public actors in legislation, guidelines and practice. There is also often a gap between policy and practice concerning how area responsibility is exercised, and a lack of clarity in current sector specific legislation.

This study of Brazilian immigrants in the United States examines the extent to which the human capital and the family social capital theories explain the probability of owning a business. This study incorporates into the analytical models a variable that controls for the presence of a market niche and tests for the net effects of human and family social capital. Analyses of U.S. 2000 Census data find that high school graduates are more likely to own their own business and that a college education exerts a significantly larger effect than that of a high school education on the probability of owning a business. Additionally, the presence of a co-habiting spouse, treated as an indicator of family social capital, enhances the probability that immigrants will own their own establishment. The results support the human capital and the family social capital theories. The study discusses implications for theory and future research.

Much of our understanding concerning minority-owned firms is based on nascent entrepreneurial businesses. Therefore, it is difficult to answer the question of how a minority-owned firm's age and size may influence the social capital derived from a minority business network. We utilize a resource-dependence perspective to hypothesize that the social capital derived from participation in a minority business network will be negatively related to the minority-owned firm's age and size. We find that firm size (as measured by revenue and number of employees) is negatively related with social capital derived from the minority business network. Our findings may help minority business owners understand the relative value of membership in minority business networks before committing limited resources.

In response to the rising numbers of refugees worldwide, many aid organizations suggest entrepreneurship as a preferred route to refugee economic self-reliance in a new country. Incubators have long provided assistance to nascent entrepreneurs and are utilized worldwide to offer support to entrepreneurial businesses. Yet, little research examines refugee-focused incubators or considers refugee-specific constraints. Herein, we argue that refugee status has specific implications for how refugee entrepreneurs accumulate and deploy human, social and financial capital. Thus, refugee status affects the types of services transitioning refugees require from incubators. This paper considers refugee-specific resources and uses a case study approach to investigate resource provision in a refugee-focused incubator in the United States. We find that even when an incubator follows best practices in terms of service provision, it may still miss the mark in terms of meeting key resource needs of refugees. Specifically, this paper illuminates how refugee entrepreneurs need (more) incubator support in terms of (1) addressing mental health in service provision, (2) building community within the incubator and (3) balancing financial tradeoffs associated with culturally-based businesses. Findings are novel when tied to a resource-based lens and help build theory regarding entrepreneurship among less-served populations.

Recognizing the heterogeneity of informal microentrepreneurs, this paper assesses the determinants of their willingness to enter the formal sector. Based on human capital theory and social capital theory, we test the hypothesis that firm decision-making regarding formalization is a function of the nature of the informal microentrepreneur. Using data collected from 500 informal microentrepreneurs in Morocco, and employing a logistic regression model, we find that higher education level, motivation by business opportunity, entrepreneurship training, work experience, gender and the importance of social networks have an impact on the desire to formalize. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.

Social capital is widely regarded to constitute an important indicator for the economic performance of a society. This paper analyzes the impact of various socio-demographic characteristics on social capital. Proxy variables for social capital are obtained from a comprehensive principal components analysis exercise using survey data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The BHPS provides information on social and economic change at the individual and household levels in Britain and the UK with an annual survey of ca. 10,000 individuals from ca. 5,000 households. Based on the 13th wave of this database, we investigate the impact of exogenous qualities, individually acquired characteristics, and of the social environment using a spatial auto-regression framework. The results show that the formation of social capital can be modeled to a very high degree of statistical accuracy. The structural effect from the households contributes substantially to the social capital level of each household member. Thus, the social capital formation can be based equally on individual measures (such as education) and social contagion processes.

Using data collected from 714 entrepreneurs in a random sample of 10,000 Danes, this study provides an investigation of the effect of human capital on social capital among entrepreneurs. Previous entrepreneurship research has extensively investigated the separated effect of human capital and social capital on different entrepreneurial outputs. The study takes a step back and investigates how these two capital concepts are related — specifically how human capital influences social capital. In general, human capital and social capital were found to be co-productive, and increased human capital seems to increase the level of social capital concurrently. The dependence between human capital and social capital has tremendous implications for policy making and entrepreneurs.

A descriptive statistics approach is applied to analyse a newly collected dataset from Young Syrian Refugees in Lebanon. The aim of the paper is to empirically document the uses and gratifications of YSRs smartphone and social media use. Results indicated that the majority of YSRs use Facebook and WhatsApp for communications and entertainment purposes. Frequency analysis was used to determine the rate at which YSRs own and utilise smartphones and Social Networking Sites. Findings indicate that males head of households purchased smartphones for wives, younger sisters and mothers. Cross tabulation analysis of the role of gender on uses and gratifications of smartphones yielded an exclusion effect due to cultural consideration. This paper opens up new horizons in the use of information technology for improving the living conditions of refugee populations.

The purpose of this research was to further the understanding of knowledge exchange within organisations by examining how the dyadic relationships between individuals, in terms of the channels of communication used (structural capital), knowledge awareness (cognitive capital), and the quality of their relationships (relational capital), influence opportunities for knowledge exchange (access to advice), and ultimately individual performance. data were analysed using social network analysis to determine individual network centralities, and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses at the individual level. The findings suggest (1) face-to-face channels with trusted sources are the most preferred method for exchanging sensitive knowledge, (2) knowing where expertise resides and source availability is key to research knowledge exchange, and (3) centrality in knowledge network does not result in uniform increases in individual performance. While technology has the potential to increase the efficiency of knowledge exchange by removing the barriers to same-time, same-place interactions, computer-mediated communication may actually inhibit the exchange of tacit knowledge and advice because of the lean medium of the exchange, negatively impacting performance. Using a network perspective, this study adds to the literature on intra-organisational learning networks by examining how an individual’s use of different communication channels to share knowledge is related to centrality in knowledge networks, and how this impacts individual performance.

Previous research suggests that guanxi "costs" are significantly higher for private Chinese enterprises versus all other enterprise types, i.e., state, township and village (TVE), domestic and foreign enterprises. Also, consistent with its cultural context, guanxi is considered to be equally important in business as it is in life for all types of Chinese enterprises. Herein, the discussion is extended to describe the concept of guanxi as a means of garnering social capital in order to maintain legitimacy. Furthermore, some practical means are suggested for entrepreneurs and small business owners to build a necessary foundation for survival.

This study proposes that cooperative efforts in microlending aid economic development and poverty alleviation in transitioning and developing countries by creating networking systems in which people can expand their businesses through working capital and community cooperation. Two field studies are used to validate the authors' claims. The first examines a microfinance cooperative structure in Bulgaria as a means to secure credit, savings, technical support and networking opportunities for cooperative members. The second looks at a cooperative microfinance institution in the Philippines that appears to create greater socio-economic growth for poor entrepreneurs as well as NGO financial viability. Both studies suggest that cooperative microlending leads to high survival rates and success of self-employed entrepreneurs by facilitating social capital through their organizational processes.