Entrepreneurship and Social Capital

Governments have invested heavily in building local and regional entrepreneurial networks in order improve economic performance and regeneration. However, there are many types of network, and different types of network are appropriate for different purposes. Some types of network are most useful in the early stages of entrepreneurial activity and others at later stages. Careful definitions are necessary in order to analyse the role of networks in generating interpersonal and inter-organizational trust, and hence in augmenting the stock of social capital. Effective networks are normally intermediated by reputable trust-brokers. The reputation of government gives it a significant role as a trust-broker, but there is a danger that its reputation may be undermined when it extends its activities into areas where it lacks the competence to intervene effectively.

[1]  Duncan J. Watts,et al.  Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age , 2003 .

[2]  R. Hardin.  The Street-Level Epistemology of Trust , 1993 .

[3]  A. Basu.  Entrepreneurial Aspirations Among Family Business Owners: An Analysis of Ethnic Business Owners in the UK , 2004 .

[4]  Madeleine Bunting.  Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives , 2004 .

[5]  Bengt Johannisson,et al.  Business formation -- a network approach , 1988 .

[6]  Mark Casson,et al.  The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory , 1982 .

[7]  H. Leibenstein.  General X-Efficiency Theory and Economic Development , 1978 .

[8]  H. Gintis,et al.  Social Capital and Community Governance , 2002 .

[9]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994 .

[10]  J. Coleman,et al.  Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[11]  S. Shane.  A General Theory of Entrepreneurship , 2003 .

[12]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[13]  M. Casson,et al.  The Economics of Trust , 2006 .

[14]  F. Stokman.  Evolution of social networks , 1997 .

[15]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[16]  Agnes Lau,et al.  The Chinese in Britain: working towards success? , 1998 .

[17]  Steven B. Andrews,et al.  Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , 1995, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[18]  M. Casson,et al.  Institutions and the Evolution of Modern Business: Introduction , 1997 .

[19]  Stephen F. Knack,et al.  Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation , 1997 .

[20]  J. Brown,et al.  Local Knowledge , 2002 .

[21]  Alistair R. Anderson,et al.  The articulation of social capital in entrepreneurial networks: a glue or a lubricant? , 2002 .

[22]  J. Andall.  Gender, Migration and Domestic Service: The Politics of Black Women in Italy , 2000 .

[23]  D. Collard,et al.  Trust : making and breaking cooperative relations , 1989 .

[24]  S. Shane.  A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus , 2003 .

[25]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  Entrepreneurship Through Social Networks , 1986 .

[26]  P. Haggett.  Network Analysis In Geography , 1971 .

[27]  A model of social capital and access to productive resources , 1999 .

[28]  Alistair R. Anderson,et al.  “Class matters”: human and social capital in the entrepreneurial process , 2003 .

[29]  Manuel Castells,et al.  Institutional models of the network society: Silicon Valley and Finland , 2004 .

[30]  R. Putnam,et al.  Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. , 1994 .