Building social capital for internationalization

Suzana Braga Rodrigues and John Child

RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), 2012, vol. 16, issue 1, 23-38

Abstract: Social capital may be defined as social relationships that confer actual or potential benefits. It can therefore be understood as a particular type of resource. Recent research has drawn attention to how connections and relationships (networking) both at home and abroad can be crucially important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking to export or invest abroad. However, relatively little is known about how SMEs initiate, develop and maintain network relationships. This paper reports a study of 32 British SMEs exporting, or attempting to export, to Brazil and of domestic institutional agencies whose role was to facilitate business conducted between British and Brazilian SMEs. The study explored both the functions of social capital for the SMEs and the process whereby it was developed. Its findings confirm the value of social capital in international entrepreneurship. It can provide information, interpretation, market opportunities, and some degree of protection against the risks associated with foreignness, newness and smallness. The study also confirms the vital importance of personal trust in sustaining social capital between small firms.

Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://rac.anpad.org.br/index.php/rac/article/view/913/910 (text/html)
https://rac.anpad.org.br/index.php/rac/article/download/913/910 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:abg:anprac:v:16:y:2012:i:1:913

Access Statistics for this article

RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration) is currently edited by Marcelo de Souza Bispo

More articles in RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration) from ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Information Technology of ANPAD ().