Social Capital and Innovation Performance in Firms

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the debate on the conceptual differences and disparities in the definitions of social capital among researchers. It also delves into the potential influence of social capital on innovation performance of firms, which continues to fuel its misunderstanding in the literature. The study critically reviews, discusses and presents available literature on the concept of social capital and its subsequent influence on innovation performance. The methodology is an extensive review of available literature on the concepts and the possible link between them. The investigation provides a potential contribution to the debate on the relationship between social capital and innovation performance in firms as a way of direction and attempts to synthesize what academia considers with regard to the concepts and points out potential areas of research required to develop the overall subject area. The chapter offers a resource for practitioners and students in this new field which has attracted the attention of enterprise developers.