Group items tagged

"While most literature promotes a positive impact of social capital on various organizational performance outcomes, empirical results on the social capital-organizational performance link are not conclusive. We propose that one reason for the discordant findings is that research has largely not accounted for the mediating process steps that translate social capital into organizational performance outcomes. We suggest that organizational performance outcomes of organization members' social capital hinge on the mediating processes of resource mobilization, assimilation, and use. An empirical study of 218 projects in the German engineering industry supports our theoretical model. Findings show that knowledge transfer (conceptualized as the mobilization, assimilation, and use of knowledge resources) mediates between organization members' intra-organizational social capital and organizational performance outcomes of growth and innovation performance. The present study thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the value of intra-organizational social capital."

"This paper examines ways in which patriarchalqfamilistic cultural systems condition responses to the kinds of social and economic changes that challenge family-owned businesses. Using a case study of an ethnic enclave in the southeastern United States, the paper looks at intergenerational succession, paying particular attention to how small firms manage to transfer control within the family. Key to successful transfer is the presence of trust and the utilization of social capital as well as the ability of successive generations to acquire skills that enable them to identify new market niches. The manuscript also discusses how firms manage conflict between old and new ideas, develop informal mechanisms for incorporating new ideas, and maintain the flexibility necessary for market survival."