Social capital and SMEs: an exploratory case study

The aim of this work is to examine in depth, through an exploratory case study, how SME’s entrepreneur could contribute to building and maintaining the collective social capital and which personal variables significantly affect this propensity to invest in social capital. Social capital represents the value embedded in the social relationships of individuals and collectives. We put forward a classification of actions which can be considered investments in social capital, that the entrepreneur could promote. This classification should help us to understand how to influence social capital assets, especially by SMEs. These kind of firms, that are distinguished by scarcity of resources, could significantly take advantage of actual and potential resources, as well as appropriable ones, embedded in social personal relationships. The role of the entrepreneur is fundamental to promoting the creation and exploitation of collective social capital, both inside and outside the firm. SMEs’ entrepreneurs could consciously choose to invest in social capital, given that a dense social capital creates value for both enterprise and society