The Social Capital Concept in Management and Organizational Literature: A Synthesis and Critical Discussion of Contemporary Applications and Research Directions

Abstract

Social capital (SC) is a contemporary management and organizational concept that has yet to reach definitional agreement. In response, and to fully grasp the meaning of SC in its management and organizational context, the paper will review its intellectual antecedents, and then synthesise the causal factors for the concept’s recent prominence. The paper will further explicate the meaning of the concept by proposing two categories of benefits for classifying the economic returns of SC. First in terms of ‘bonding capital’s’ role in facilitating knowledge management (KM); and second in terms of ‘bridging capital’s’ role in facilitating reputation management (RM).