Social capital has been a “growth industry”
(Baker & Faulkner, 2009). As Figure 1 shows, the
use of “social capital” in the title, abstract, and
key words of journal articles has multiplied rapidly
over the past several decades. In our 2002
article (Adler & Kwon, 2002) we argued that social
capital was still in the “emerging excitement”
phase of the life cycle typical of an umbrella
concept. By 2008, however, as Woolcock
(2010) has argued, it had become largely “routinized”
in both everyday conversation and policy
circles. Woolcock notes the prevalence of social
capital themes in research in at least eight
fields beyond our own field of management and
organizations: families and youth behavior
problems, crime and violence, schools and education,
community life, public health, management
of common-pool resources, economic development,
and democracy and governance.
Moody and Paxton (2009) offer a similar map of
the main areas of social capital research in sociology.
Within economics, social capital has
acquired considerable legitimacy, particularly
in development economics (Hayami, 2009). Within
management and organizational research, social
capital has influenced research in such areas
as interorganizational relationships (Sorenson
& Rogan, in press), knowledge management
(Maurer, Bartsch, & Ebers, 2011), and entrepreneurship
(Slotte-Kock & Coviello, 2010), to name
a few
(Baker & Faulkner, 2009). As Figure 1 shows, the
use of “social capital” in the title, abstract, and
key words of journal articles has multiplied rapidly
over the past several decades. In our 2002
article (Adler & Kwon, 2002) we argued that social
capital was still in the “emerging excitement”
phase of the life cycle typical of an umbrella
concept. By 2008, however, as Woolcock
(2010) has argued, it had become largely “routinized”
in both everyday conversation and policy
circles. Woolcock notes the prevalence of social
capital themes in research in at least eight
fields beyond our own field of management and
organizations: families and youth behavior
problems, crime and violence, schools and education,
community life, public health, management
of common-pool resources, economic development,
and democracy and governance.
Moody and Paxton (2009) offer a similar map of
the main areas of social capital research in sociology.
Within economics, social capital has
acquired considerable legitimacy, particularly
in development economics (Hayami, 2009). Within
management and organizational research, social
capital has influenced research in such areas
as interorganizational relationships (Sorenson
& Rogan, in press), knowledge management
(Maurer, Bartsch, & Ebers, 2011), and entrepreneurship
(Slotte-Kock & Coviello, 2010), to name
a few