Social Capital in the Knowledge Economy: Theory and Empirics, H. Westlund. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (2006). x +212 pp., ISBN-10 3-540-35364-X, ISBN-13 978-540-35364-5

摘要

The last decade witnessed an extensive use of social capital in academic literature before the concept fell into relative neglect due to its vagueness, measurement difficulties, and ambiguous social and economic outcomes. Although some people promptly declared the end of social capital, other authors (e.g. Dasgupta, 2005) proposed to write the economics of social capital using a tight definition based on social networks. Hans Westlund's book is an attempt to carry this analysis further. Hans Westlund rehabilitates social capital as a genuine form of capital that may play a fundamental role in economic performance. The focus on the social capital of the enterprise as a means to get access to knowledge provides some empirical insights.