Role of personal networks and social capital on the acquisition of resources for the social organizations

A major problem for social entrepreneurs that want to manage a social organization on a daily basis is the problem of acquiring external resources (physical, financial, human, etc.) to fulfil its social mission. The literature has suggested that networks can play a critical role in resources acquisition. This study aims to investigate the role of the social entrepreneur's network and social capital on the acquisition of different kind of external resources to the social organization. The study uses a quantitative method, and the primary data as collected through an online survey of 313 social organizations from Portugal, the results show that the founders' network acts positively in attracting human resources, assuring state support and obtaining information from different stakeholders relevant for the management of the social organization. The founders' social capital seems to be only relevant to the attraction of financial resources to social organizations. The investigation allows enlarging the knowledge about the network approach to social entrepreneurship that is still very under-exploited.