RT Article
T1 Assessing Social Capital: Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Germany and the U.K
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 47
IS 1
SP 17
OP 29
A1 Spence, Laura J.
A1 Schmidpeter, René
A1 Habisch, André 1963-
A2 Schmidpeter, René
A2 Habisch, André 1963-
LA English
YR 2003
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785620193
AB "Social capital" can be considered to be the product of co-operationbetween various institutions, networks and business partners. It haspotential as a useful tool for business ethics. In this article weidentify categories pertinent to the measurement of social capital insmall and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). By drawing on three differentsectors, one business-to-business service, one business-to-customerservice, and one manufacturing, we have enabled the consideration ofsectoral differences. We find sector to play an important part inrelation to business practices and social capital. Our inclusion of SMEsfrom Germany and the United Kingdom has called attention to cultural,institutional and economic aspects of two regions of Europe and how theycan influence SME social capital. Social capital is found to beinfluenced by context and, in particular, institutional arrangements. Inanalysing the data we note particular areas of interest from the pointof view of SMEs and social capital as being: formal engagement,networking within sectors, networking across sectors, volunteerism andgiving to charity, and finally a focus on why people engage. We concludethat there is a considerable amount of further research needed on socialcapital, SME's and business ethics.
K1 Volunteerism
K1 United Kingdom
K1 Social Capital
K1 small and medium-sized enterprises
K1 Networks
K1 Local Community
K1 Germany
K1 Corporate Social Responsibility
K1 Civic Engagement
K1 charitable giving
DO 10.1023/A:1026284727037