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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the theory of social capital for the challenges presented during environmental management initiatives in higher education institutions (HEIs). In particular, the paper utilises the fundamental components of social capital theory and assesses a hypothesis that higher stocks of social capital result in benefits for environmental management of HEIs.

An introduction of the concept of social capital and its components is presented followed by a brief review on its main connections with environmental policy and management in general. An analysis of the influence of each component on several issues occurring during the environmental management of HEIs follows.

Through the analysis, it is claimed that social capital is a useful concept for the environmental management of HEIs and may significantly facilitate such initiatives.

The paper emphasizes the effect of community social capital in the internal functioning of organizations. Further research could also explore the influence of dealings with external actors.

The paper emphasises the importance of exploring the potential influence of social factors while planning environmental initiatives. Through such assessments, several obstacles may be overcome during implementation procedures.

This is a first attempt to explore the application of the theory of social capital for the functioning of the academic community during initiatives for the greening of HEIs.

This paper aims to analyze the role played by two dimensions of entrepreneurs' private social capital in the survival, growth and innovativeness of entrepreneurial service ventures: local size and preferential attachment degree.

Data were collected by a questionnaire, the unit of investigation being the private entrepreneur in the service sector in the city of Shanghai. The questionnaire allows the authors to identify the social network of the entrepreneurs, estimate the empirical degree distribution for the entire sample, and estimate local size and preferential attachment degree.

There is empirical evidence that entrepreneurs do not create social networks with preferential attachment structure and a large local size of the network increases the chances of survival of new ventures; however, the chance to become a dynamic venture is only related to entrepreneurs' preferential attachment degree.

Any entrepreneurial strategy should include an investment plan to generate a minimum level of social capital or guanxi. Additionally, efficient strategy to generate social capital for dynamic entrepreneurship should focus on the creation of quality social capital. The underestimation of the role of social capital seems to have a deeper impact when analyzing the phenomenon of entrepreneurial innovation.

This conclusion suggests that the role of social capital in the entrepreneurial process could be underestimated systematically, since most of the literature only considers local measures of social capital. This underestimation seems to have a deeper impact when analyzing the phenomenon of entrepreneurial innovation.

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of social capital on supply chain performance via supply chain quality integration (SCQI), which refers to integrating supply chain partners from the perspective of quality management. It also examines the moderating role of environmental uncertainty in the link between social capital and SCQI and determines the conditional indirect effect of social capital on supply chain performance via SCQI.

Data were collected using a time-lagged research design through a self-administered survey of supply chain professionals in manufacturing firms in Pakistan. Hayes’ PROCESS Macro was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show a positive relationship between social capital and supply chain performance. SCQI partially mediates the relationship between social capital and supply chain performance. Environmental uncertainty significantly moderates that relationship in such a way that firms that operate under high environmental uncertainty are more likely to use their social capital to develop SCQI than firms that operate under low environmental uncertainty.

The study has practical implications for managers who seek to implement SCQI practices using social capital. Leveraging social capital across the supply chain fosters strong connections and a quality-oriented approach across the supply chain, and improves overall performance. Managers can use the power of social capital to navigate environmental uncertainty.

This study’s originality lies in its drawing on the dynamic capability theory and contingency theory and integrating the dispersed scholarly work on social capital, SCQI, and supply chain performance under the boundary condition of environmental uncertainty.

This study’s main objective is to determine the extent to which social capital and psychological capital can explain differences in career adaptability among higher education students.

The study employed a quantitative approach, utilizing a survey research design. Data were gathered using an online questionnaire completed by 384 fourth-year undergraduate agricultural students in Iran. The inverse square root and multistage sampling methods were used to determine the sample size. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method examined the associations between latent variables.

The results suggest that social and psychological capital significantly influence the career adaptability of agricultural students, highlighting their significance in enhancing career adaptability. Moreover, psychological capital positively mediates the relationship between social capital and career adaptability.

Agricultural higher education institutions must focus on developing students' social and psychological capital to cultivate career adaptability in agricultural students. Agricultural higher education institutions, for example, should help students develop soft skills.

This study offers novel insights into the significance of individual resources, such as social and psychological capital, in enhancing the career adaptability of students. In addition, the key contribution of this study is the researchers' empirical evidence that multiple career resources are interconnected (social capital, career adaptability, and psychological capital).

The significance of digital literacy in online social capital accumulation and surviving the contemporary society is widely recognised. Despite that the current generation is regarded as “digital natives”, their levels and nature of digital literacy vary. To generate educational insights, this study investigates the type(s) of digital literacy which are mostly related to the online social capital accumulation, and how one’s socio-economic background affects the connection between digital literacy and online social capital.

A total of 1,747 participants aged 13–30 were invited to take part in a quantitative study. Spearman's rank correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis and mediation analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between participants' demographic background, engagement in the online platforms, digital literacy and online social capital.

The results showed that the creative dimension of digital literacy was mostly significantly predictive of online social capital accumulation. Also, education significantly affected the relationship between the creative dimension of digital literacy and online social capital more than demographic background.

Results suggest that education helps enhance digital literacy, offsetting the influence of socio-demographic background. The author examines the implications of how to implement training programmes in youth settings to enhance students' digital literacy and benefit those who are marginalised.

The study aims to examine the impact of intellectual and social capital in funding businesses.

The study made use of fixed-effects panel data models with a sample of 142 countries from the five continents during the period 1998–2018.

It was found that human capital (HC), relational capital, structural capital and social capital play a role in investors’ decisions to fund a business. The study revealed that investors’ funding decisions in low human development index countries are based mainly on education, while those in high human development index countries are based mainly on the creativity component of HC and on relational, structural and social capital.

The study needs to be replicated using firm-level data within each country. Moreover, the search for new proxies for intellectual and social capital (although the list of variables is exhaustive) both at the country and firm level, constitutes an interesting avenue for future research.

Countries should pay attention to intellectual and social capital to encourage business activity. In particular, low human development countries should strengthen HC, such as the school enrollment rate, with early entrepreneurial training and increase research and development investments, while high human development countries should continue to foster strategic alliances, protect intellectual property and maintain or increase the level of trust in the country.

The study contributes to literature by being the first to explore such a variety of intellectual and social capital variables from a country-level perspective.

El estudio tiene como objetivo examinar el impacto del capital intelectual y social en la financiación de las empresas.

Utilizamos modelos de datos de panel de efectos fijos con una muestra de 142 países de los cinco continentes durante el periodo 1998-2018.

Encontramos que el capital humano (CH), el capital relacional, el capital estructural y el capital social juegan un papel en las decisiones de los inversionistas para financiar un negocio. Encontramos que las decisiones de financiamiento de los inversionistas en los países con bajo índice de desarrollo humano se basan principalmente en la educación, mientras que las de los países con alto índice de desarrollo humano se basan principalmente en el componente de creatividad del CH y en el capital relacional, estructural y social.

Sugerimos replicar el estudio utilizando datos a nivel de empresa dentro de cada país. Por otra parte, la búsqueda de nuevos indicadores de capital intelectual y social (aunque nuestra lista de variables es exhaustiva) tanto a nivel de país como de empresa, constituye una vía interesante para futuras investigaciones.

Los países deben prestar atención al capital intelectual y social para fomentar la actividad empresarial. En particular, los países con bajo desarrollo humano deberían fortalecer el CH, como la tasa de matriculación escolar, con una formación empresarial temprana y aumentar las inversiones en investigación y desarrollo, mientras que los países con un alto nivel de desarrollo humano deberían seguir fomentando las alianzas estratégicas, proteger la propiedad intelectual y mantener o aumentar el nivel de confianza en el país.

El estudio contribuye a la literatura al ser el primero en explorar tal variedad de variables de capital intelectual y social desde una perspectiva a nivel de país.

The chapter examines various manifestations of the concept of “social capital” in details by sorting them into three categories: individual, collective, and hybrid. Based on the examination of social capital literature, the chapter defines social capital as moral resources that lubricate cooperation among individuals for economic as well as civic reasons. Then the chapter examines social capital in contemporary urban China. The atomizing effect of market economy destroyed previous stock of social capital, but there are not corrective mechanisms to generate new social capital. Therefore urban China is experiencing the paucity of social capital.

Billions of people around the world live in subsistence conditions. While this has traditionally been treated as a humanitarian challenge, it also represents a business opportunity. Academic research has yet to explore this notion adequately, particularly from the perspective of marketing. In this chapter, we draw on social capital theory to show how rich social ties in otherwise poor populations constitute assets that can be leveraged for the benefit of firms and consumers alike. Building on these ideas, we contend that a decentralized and externalized marketing structure should be more effective in subsistence contexts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Purpose – Examined here are some of the tenets of social capital in the context of the migrants’ crossing the U.S.–Mexico border without official authorization. Using this context helps identify how social capital development is weakened by the structural and gendered dimensions of migration, contributing to the rise in undocumented border crosser deaths since 1993.

Approach – A selection of published works provide an overview of social capital, and in particular, how the framework has been used to further our understanding of the process of migration and immigrant settlement in new destinations. The principles of social capital are then examined in light of women's border crossing experiences and used to argue that migrants from emerging migrant-sending states in southern and central Mexico have had less time to accumulate resource-enhancing migration-related social capital. The narratives of repatriated women collected during research on the border in 2006–2007 are used to illustrate how controlling environments undermine the acquisition of social capital at a critical time.

Findings – The selection of narratives of women who were repatriated after attempting to cross into the United States without authorization illustrate the perilous interplay of hardening border enforcement and multiplying illicit border smuggling organizations. The outcome is the downward leveling of social capital on the border that potentially poses greater life-threatening risks for migrants.

Originality/value – This study provides a theoretical understanding that can be used to explain rising levels of violence along the U.S.–Mexico border that increasingly engulf migrants fleeing poverty in Mexico.

This paper offers new conversations on entrepreneurial ecosystems as contested communities through a critique of extant work that relies uncritically on social capital. It offers new directions for theorizing and studying entrepreneurial ecosystems guided by a critical perspective of social capital (i.e., arriving from several intellectual traditions including political economy, intersectionality, critical race theory, and feminisms). In doing so, the paper offers insights around how continued structural and relational inequalities based on gender, race and/or immigrant status within the domain of entrepreneurship can be brought to the forefront of ecosystem frameworks. Doing so produces new approaches to the conceptualization and study of entrepreneurial ecosystems as more than sites of economic activity between and among actors, but rather it allows for consideration of how being differentially embedded in social structures matters for entrepreneurship. Differences in social structures within ecosystems reflect broader societal patterns and analyzing them can yield insights about the configuration of institutions. To understand the complexity of how different institutional configurations may lead to different forms of entrepreneurial ecosystems, it is necessary to have different conceptual starting points on social capital (informal) and exchange relationships (formal) as foundational aspects of entrepreneurial activities. Consequently, the paper provides these new analytic starting points, thus providing better explanatory and empirical power to demonstrate how and why inequalities persist in entrepreneurship.