Social capital of organizations:from social structure to the management of corporate social capital

Social capital in general and the study of social capital in the context of organizations has gained considerable attention in recent years. Despite the promise in the potency of the concept, its useful application suffers from the plethora of different definitions and approaches—both theoretical and empirical. In this paper we build upon one unifying definition and attempt to provide an encompassing framework for corporate social capital—from both a theoretical and empirical point of view. We do this by explicitly distinguishing between social capital and social networks. Moreover, we distinguish between the positive (social capital) and negative (social liability) outcomes of social networks. Finally, we argue that it is imperative to consider the various organizational levels of analysis at which both social relationships and their outcomes (and antecedents) reside