Understanding why people seek shopping recommendations from others on social commerce sites can help managers design strategies to encourage users’ engagement of social commerce. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of customers’ intention to seek shopping recommendations on social commerce sites. Drawing upon the theories of social capital and behavioral intention, a resear...

This study explored in what way and to what extent people’s occupational position corresponds with the consumption of news and the exposure to political content offered by the traditional mass media TV, radio and newspaper. Empirical data from the ’Media use in the Netherlands, 2000’ survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population (Konig, et al., 2005) (N=825) were used. Occupation...

The author proposes a conceptual model to explain the diverse roles of social capital--resources embedded in social networks--in the social production of health. Using a unique national U.S. sample, the author estimated a path analysis model to examine the direct and indirect effects of social capital on psychological distress and its intervening effects on the relationships between other struc...

This study integrates social resources theory and social exchange theory arguments to examine the knowledge benefits that international assignees’ host-unit social capital entails upon repatriation. Specifically, I hypothesize that assignees’ host-unit social capital, operationalized as their number of work group contacts and their proportion of trusted ties at the host unit, positively relates...

The affiliation with various social groups can be a critical factor when it comes to quality of life of each individual, making such groups an essential element of every society. The group dynamics, longevity and effectiveness strongly depend on group's ability to attract new members and keep them engaged in group activities. It was shown that high heterogeneity of scientist's engagement in con...

There is a growing consensus among urban analysts that inner-city neighborhoods suffer from a lack of social capital. Because these areas do not have a strong social infrastructure in place to support successful revitalization efforts, urban policy recommendations now call for developing social capital in the worst-off parts of our cities. However, this consensus has been reached without any em...

Few social scientific concepts have gathered so much attention and so many followers in such a short period of time than the concept of social capital. As the articles collected in the current volume show, the fundamental idea can be traced back at least to de Tocqueville ([1840] 1945, Chapter 1 in this volume). Hanifan (1920, Chapter 2 in this volume), Jacobs (1961, Chapter 4 in this volume), ...

In recent years, networking and collaboration have become increasingly popular in education. However, there is at present a lack of attention to the theoretical basis of networking, which could illuminate when and when not to network and under what conditions networks are likely to be successful. In this paper, we will attempt to sketch the theoretical background to networking drawing on work i...

This paper adopts a holistic approach to explain why social capital matters for effective implementation, widespread uptake, greater social inclusion, and the sustainability of CI initiatives. It describes a theoretical framework drawn from diffusion of innovation, community development and social capital theories. The framework emphasises the interplay between physical infrastructure (includin...

Utilizing theories on social capital, business networks, social networks and relationship value, we explore the aspects that provide specific value in relationships with different actors in the software industry. The motive for the study is the assumption that some relationships are regarded as more important than others, and companies strive to focus on fewer relationships with greater outcome...