Search results

This study’s purpose is to examine the relations between LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) youths’ Internet usage and their social capital. Previous research has shown that Internet use assists actors with similar background and interests in forming bonding social capital. Additionally, it has been found that Internet use can assist actors from dissimilar background in forming bridging social capital. This study aims at extending these findings to LGBT youth, who may especially benefit from having a supporting social network while coping with the challenges of forming their sexual orientation/gender identity. For this purpose, an Internet survey was launched, with 82 participants, who were users of forums in the Israeli Gay Youth organization website (IGY). The survey included three measures of Internet use (i.e., amount of time spent in Internet forums, content posting activity, and emotional investment in forums), and questionnaires estimating the degrees of bridging and bonding social capital. In general, we found a positive association between forum usage and social capital. Inasmuch as Internet forum use was more intensive, the reported social capital increased. Furthermore, our findings suggest that more passive forum usage may be sufficient for forming bridging social capital, whereas bonding social capital may necessitate more active usage. These findings suggest that Internet forums designated for LGBT adolescents are important resources that can help them to cope with the special challenges they face at this turning point for their identity, deem to decrease the risk of detrimental outcomes, such as depression or even suicide.

Corporate Social Capital has been receiving increasing attention in recent study of organizations. In this paper we focus our attention on strategic orientation of firms and reveal the ways they are affected by the social structure in which they are embedded. We focus on the way strategic orientation is socially determined and diffused. Our empirical application analyses 100 Israeli software firms, operating in four industrial districts. We reveal five generic business orientations. Applying corporate social capital as a framework, we find that similarity in business orientation is significantly associated with a firm's position in the inter-organizational network and with a firm's geographic location. Both network position and geographic location serve as a pool of social resources for adopting firm strategic style, deem successful in a highly uncertain sector thus creating corporate social capital.