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Article
Publication date: 26 July 2019

Fang Xiong and Jia Lu You

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact paths of the social capital and the effects of microfinance in rural China, and address effective methods to enhance the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact paths of the social capital and the effects of microfinance in rural China, and address effective methods to enhance the effects of microfinance for rural China.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a structural equation model with survey data from 350 rural households in China, this paper analyzes empirically whether greater level of social sanctions and social relations caused more tangible effects of microfinance, and whether tangible effects of microfinance are associated with social capital formation of households.

Findings

The results indicate that social capital promotes the effects of microfinance and the process of providing microfinance service is also the process of building social capital. Moreover, social sanctions diminish the effects of microfinance while social relations boost them and enhance the effects of microfinance that can encourage social capital formation. Results also show that a reverse causal relationship exists between social sanctions and social relations.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical results imply that actively utilizing and creating social capital is vital to improve the effects of microfinance, and microfinance institutions (MFIs) should concentrate more on harmonious social relations and deliberately build social capital.

Practical implications

These findings imply that actively utilizing and creating social capital is vital to improve the effects of microfinance, and the MFIs should concentrate more on harmonious social relations and deliberately build social capital to enhance the effects of microfinance while prudently use social sanctions.

Social implications

Enhancing the effects of microfinance, while prudently using social sanctions, increases households income.

Originality/value

This paper originates to investigate the links between the social capital and the effects of microfinance in a mutual way, and the results urge more attentions on the harmonious social relations which have been ignored to enhance the effects of microfinance.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Social Capital
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-587-7

Article
Publication date: 19 October 2010

Tiffany Veinot

This paper aims to describe the personal information and help networks of people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) in rural Canada, and to present a research‐based model of how and why these…

1333

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe the personal information and help networks of people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) in rural Canada, and to present a research‐based model of how and why these networks developed. This model seeks to consider the roles of PHAs, their family members/friends and formal health systems in network formation.

Design/methodology/approach

In‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 114 PHAs, their friends/family members (FFs) and formal caregivers in three rural regions of Canada. A network solicitation procedure elicited PHAs' HIV/AIDS information/help networks. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively, and network data were analyzed statistically. Documents describing health systems in each region were also analyzed. Analyses used social capital theory, supplemented by stress/coping and stigma management theories.

Findings

PHAs' HIV/AIDS‐related information/help networks emphasized linking and bonding social capital with minimal bridging social capital. This paper presents a model that explains how and why such networks developed. The model shows that networks grew from the actions of PHAs, their FFs and health systems. PHAs experienced considerable stress, which led them to develop information/help networks to cope with HIV/AIDS – both individually and collaboratively. Because of stigmatization, many PHAs disclosed their illness selectively, thus constraining the size and composition of their networks. Health system actors created network‐building opportunities for PHAs by providing them with care, referrals and support programs.

Originality/value

This study describes and explains an understudied type of information behavior: information/help network development at individual, group and institutional levels. As such, it illuminates the complex dynamics that made individual acts of interpersonal information acquisition and sharing possible.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 66 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2016

Andrea Furlan and Roberto Grandinetti

– The purpose of this paper is to integrate knowledge inheritance theory with the social capital perspective to explain the initial endowments of spinoffs.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate knowledge inheritance theory with the social capital perspective to explain the initial endowments of spinoffs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors maintain that social capital plays a crucial part, both as a mechanism supporting the generation of intellectual capital prior to a spinoff’s foundation, and as an endowment that complements this capital once the spinoff is founded. Knowledge inheritance remains a fundamental mechanism for the formation of a spinoff’s intellectual capital. Its other endowment, social capital, derives from three types of relationship that future entrepreneurs develop within, through and outside their parent firm, all three of which are crucial to the formation of a spinoff’s intellectual capital.

Findings

The first result of the theoretical research is an integrative framework of a spinoff’s endowments. Moreover, the authors apply this framework to address two key research questions in the spinoff literature, i.e. whether spinoffs can differ from their parents in terms of intellectual capital; and why spinoffs tend to co-locate near their parents, in geographical clusters. The integrative approach helps to tackle these questions.

Originality/value

This conceptual paper offers a more comprehensive explanation of the emergence of spinoffs in terms of their initial endowments than the knowledge inheritance theory.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 October 2014

Soumyananda Dinda

The purpose of this paper is to analyse inclusive growth that focuses on the creation of opportunities for all. Inclusive growth allows people to contribute to and benefit from…

1883

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse inclusive growth that focuses on the creation of opportunities for all. Inclusive growth allows people to contribute to and benefit from economic growth, while pro-poor growth approaches focusing on welfare of the poor only to reduce inequality.

Design/methodology/approach

Social capital forms with the development of human capital through schooling. Educated individuals are interested in dialogue and conversation. Interaction enables people to build trust, confidence and cooperation, to commit themselves to each other (i.e. reciprocity), and thereby to knit the social fabric. This study deals with the formation of social capital through development of human capital that is created through improvement of schooling and/or social inclusion. Creation of human and social capital is the basis for inclusive growth.

Findings

Recently, economics literature incorporates social capital for explaining regional disparities. Economic development of country depends on the impact of social capital which includes social culture, norms and regulations that promote economic reforms and development activities. Social capital forms with the development of human capital through schooling.

Research limitations/implications

More detail regional levels data are required for empirical findings.

Practical implications

This paper definitely suggests a clear policy for inclusive growth model in less developed regions/countries. Briefly and specific few policies are suggested as: first, improve productive consumption providing nutritional intake to all the excluded people of the society; second, dismal the social blocking and create the base for bridging social capital formation; third, improve school enrollment and strengthen the feeling of togetherness; fourth, design school curriculum as per need base; and fifth, develop institutions and improve capacity building.

Social implications

The Government expenditure policy should be focused more on productive consumption rather than unproductive consumption. The government should concentrate on the development of education and health sectors.

Originality/value

The inclusive economic growth process overcomes low-level equilibrium trap. The predictions of the model are examined empirically for a cross-section of countries and have substantial support in the chosen sample data.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 41 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 September 2006

Heidi Ross and Jing Lin

We investigate how communities in China use schools to create and reproduce the values, knowledge, and social expectations that engender social capital. We focus on private and…

Abstract

We investigate how communities in China use schools to create and reproduce the values, knowledge, and social expectations that engender social capital. We focus on private and girls’ education, and report on the experiences of four schools between 1995 and 2005. We argue that, beyond schools’ contribution to the skills acquired by individual students, whether they promote the formation of social capital within communities should be a part of our assessment of their effectiveness. Schools as centers of activism can provide communities a forum for formulating their social demands and identities. In this context, social capital formation provides a useful heuristic for reclaiming the language of social justice and considering the human ends of education.

Details

Children's Lives and Schooling across Societies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-400-3

Book part
Publication date: 26 August 2010

Kent V. Rondeau and Terry H. Wagar

The relationship between organization strategy and a high-involvement work system (HIWS) in the accumulation of social capital is investigated in nursing subunits in a large…

Abstract

The relationship between organization strategy and a high-involvement work system (HIWS) in the accumulation of social capital is investigated in nursing subunits in a large sample of Canadian long-term care organizations. Results suggest that strategic orientation of nursing homes has a differential impact on the ability of these organizations to accumulate social capital in its nursing staff. Using a competing values framework to characterize strategic orientation, long-term care establishments pursuing an employee-focused strategy are able to accumulate higher levels of social capital in their nursing units through the adoption of a high-involvement human resource management (HRM) work system. By contrast, long-term care organizations pursuing an operational efficiency strategy, in tandem with the adoption of a high-involvement HRM system, produce no additional accumulation in nursing unit social capital.

Details

Strategic Human Resource Management in Health Care
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-948-0

Article
Publication date: 8 February 2011

Sinéad Carey and Benn Lawson

Building social capital within buyer‐supplier relationships is often associated with high performing supply chains. However, little research has examined the mechanisms by which…

2566

Abstract

Purpose

Building social capital within buyer‐supplier relationships is often associated with high performing supply chains. However, little research has examined the mechanisms by which social capital is formed. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of relational and contractual governance mechanisms on the formation of social capital under varying levels of demand and supply uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework is developed, grounded in the literature on supply chain management and social capital theory (SCT).

Findings

A series of propositions showed that relational governance leads to the formation of social capital under conditions of supply uncertainty, but is subject to opportunism when customer product demand is uncertain. By contrast, in conditions of high demand uncertainty, contractual governance is associated with social capital formation.

Practical implications

The paper illustrates the need for managers to consider both the way in which their choice of governance mechanisms (contractual and relational) contributes to social capital, as well as highlighting the contingent nature of these mechanisms depending on the environmental context.

Originality/value

This paper is a novel contribution, applying SCT to the literature on supply chain management.

Details

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 22 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-038X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2021

Timothy G. Ford and Patrick B. Forsyth

The evidence is strong that the instability of teacher rosters in urban school settings has negative consequences for student learning, but our concern is with the opposite…

Abstract

Purpose

The evidence is strong that the instability of teacher rosters in urban school settings has negative consequences for student learning, but our concern is with the opposite phenomenon: What is the value added to the organization when a school's teaching roster is stable over time? Our theory of teacher corps stability hinges on the claim that the stability of a teacher corps over time is a sine qua non that, under certain conditions, permits formation of the social capital needed to catalyze school effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

We test this claim using longitudinal data from 72 schools in a large, urban southwestern US school district. We first identified a subset of 47 schools with either chronic teacher turnover (high, stable turnover) or a stable teacher roster (low, stable turnover) via school-level HLM growth modeling techniques. These classifications were then used as a covariate in a series of HLM growth models investigating its relationship to growth in structural, relational and cognitive social capital over time.

Findings

Our findings sustain a claim of the importance of teacher corps stability. In our sample of urban schools, we found robust increases in the relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital over time in those schools with stable rosters. Furthermore, schools with chronic turnover were declining significantly in relational social capital, but no appreciable growth in structural social capital was found in either stable roster or chronic teacher turnover schools.

Practical implications

Given the nature of teacher corps stability and its relationship to key organizational outcomes, school leaders play a central role in realizing teacher corps stability within their school. A certain amount of this effort must necessarily be focused on retaining a stable corps of quality, happy, committed teachers. However, building social capital concerns the active engagement of all actors; thus, school leaders need to think beyond retention to how the teachers that remain can play larger leadership roles in this process.

Originality/value

Few studies have examined the positive benefits that can emerge in schools where the majority of teachers remain year after year. Collectively, the study findings suggest that teacher corps stability can provide fertile conditions for the development of social capital that has the potential to enhance school effectiveness and that its staff can leverage for school improvement.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 59 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 April 2020

Mudit Kumar Singh and Jaemin Lee

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the inequality perpetuated through social categories in accessing the social capital generated through the microfinance…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the inequality perpetuated through social categories in accessing the social capital generated through the microfinance interventions in India as the country has pronounced economic inequality by social categories like many developing stratified societies.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses survey data collected from 75 villages in rural India and tests whether the formation and maximization of social capital through self-help groups (SHGs) is dominated by social categories, e.g. high-caste groups, males and superior occupation classes. Using logistic regression framework, the study assesses the formation and maximization of social capital through multiple SHG membership.

Findings

The paper finds that the microfinance approach of empowering weaker sections is considerably limited in its success, in the sense that it provides them with the opportunity to the credit access and support through SHGs. But, the empirical model further indicates that social capital in form of these SHGs may fall prey to the dominant social categories, and thus, these institutions may potentially enhance inequality.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is derived from the secondary data set, so it is unable to comment field reality qualitatively.

Practical implications

Microfinance policy makers will have an improved understanding of inherent social inequalities while implementing group-based programs in socially stratified societies.

Originality/value

Social capital, if treated as an outcome accumulated in form of groups, provides with an important framework to assess the unequal access through the microfinance interventions. Overlooking the inherent unequal access will deceive the purpose of social justice in the group-based interventions. The microfinance and other welfare policies engaged in group formation and generating the social capital need to be more sensitive to the disadvantageous sections while focusing on multiple group access by disadvantaged social groups.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 40 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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