Hi everyone
One of our ie-scholars members has asked for some comments on social capital research in IE. I’ll offer some comments here, but welcome all of you to add your own input! Please and thank you 🙂
For me, research on social capital is linked to that on networks. Indeed, one of the earlier topics to emerge in IE research was a focus on the role of networks in the internationalization of INVs. Some examples include Bell (1995, European Journal of Marketing) as well as Coviello and Munro (1995, European Journal of Marketing) and (1997, International Business Review). I think both Jim and I were lucky enough to stumble onto the emerging network literature as we were working on our PhDs and I am very grateful for that!
Since then, network research has continued to be a major topic of interest in IE research, with some of the more recent publications coming from (e.g.) Danis, de Clercq and Petricevic (2011, International Business Review) and Tolstoy (Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 2010). Over the years, many of the network studies have focused on software firms in developed markets but now, we are seeing a shift to explorations of the role of networks in emerging market economies and importantly, researchers are also moving beyond the software context.
IE research specific to social capital is more recent and in my view, is evidence that we are moving to a more sophisticated understanding of the impact of networks. I think the earliest IE paper in this area was by Yli-Renko, Autio and Tontti (2002, IBR) and others include Han (2006, Journal of International Entrepreneurship), Prashantham and Dhanaraj (2010, Journal of Management Studies), and Evald et al. (2011, Journal of International Entrepreneurship).
Further examples of both the network and social capital research in IE can be found in the review by Jones et al. (2011) and by searching through the 2010-2012 database of IE publications that can be found in the ‘Bibliographies’ section under the Research tab.
I expect to see ongoing IE interest in both networks and social capital, and would encourage you to be intimately familiar with Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998)’s paper in AMR: “Social Capital, Intellectual Capital and the Organizational Advantage.” In addition, look outside the IE, IB and Entrepreneurship literature for insight – research on networks and social capital is everywhere! In case you are interested, I am attaching the outline for my PhD seminar on this topic from 2012: Coviello – Networks and Social Capital Seminar 2012
Best wishes,Nicole