Although the literature on social capital has increased dramatically in recent years, concernshave been raised about the expanse of applications of the term, diversity of constructs,definitions and variety of analyses. The purpose of this paper is to clarify theconceptualisation of social capital in entrepreneurship. To achieve this, the paper begins witha review of the extensive literature on social capital. This provides a preliminary theoreticalframework about the nature and categories of social capital. Thereafter, an account isprovided of an empirical study in which in-depth and extensive data was gathered about thesocial interactions of entrepreneurs from ten technology firms. Findings demonstrate thatsocial capital is a social relational artefact produced in social interactions. It is not owned butrepresents a pool of goodwill residing in a social network and it can be envisaged as arevolving mutual fund of traded and un-traded interdependencies.
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